Real estate agents promote new projects to potential buyers at a housing fair in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Wang Dingchang / Xinhua

Changing times

According to Li Wenlong, a property consultant at Beijing Homelink Real Estate Services, a well-known realtor, the predicaments faced by Chen and Zhu are not unusual. Li has worked for Homelink's office in Beiyuan district for more than 18 months, which makes him a relative veteran.

"Before Chinese New Year, a one-bedroom apartment of 58 to 60 square meters in the Meilifang area sold for 2.1 million yuan, but now the same apartment will only fetch 1.8 million," he said.

"I remember that this time last year, we had lots of interested customers and they seemed to arrive at the office one after another. It was totally a seller's market, so prices were non-negotiable, and even though I had only just graduated I could still make commission of 20,000 yuan a month," he said.

Times have changed, though, and bowing to the inevitable, sellers have lowered their prices. However, buyers are still few and far between. When Li calls potential customers, most say they are in no hurry to buy and are happy to wait, some become impatient with his offers and a few have simply muttered an excuse and hung up.

"I haven't sold a single house since March, and I can only make about 2,000 yuan a month. At the lowest point, I made just 1,600 yuan, which didn't even cover my rent and food bills," he said.

The knock-on effect has been that several of Li's colleagues have quit their jobs, mostly those who had only worked for the company for a few months.

"Property consultancy is a job with a low entry threshold, but I like it. And also I love working with the team because there's a sense of family. I will persist as long as I can," said the 24-year-old from Xiangfan in Hubei province.

Other realtors tell a similar story. On a Saturday - the best day of the week for showing clients around available properties - three agents of the Beijing-based agency Bacic & 5i5j in Chaoyang, sat in front of their office and chatted in the sunshine. Two other agents played games on their phones.

The agents hopefully held out flyers to passers-by, but very few people bothered to take them.

Although property agents work on commission and the dearth of sales in recent months has seen incomes shrink, experts said it's too early to contemplate large-scale closures.

China Daily spoke with several long-standing property agents, some of whom survived the two gloomiest periods in recent real estate history - in 2008 and 2011. They all acknowledged that times are tough, but remained upbeat about the prospects for the industry.

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