Rapidly increasing real estate prices in the city have led to an increase in the number of property disputes being heard by local courts, several judges said yesterday.

Officials from the Jing'an District People's Court said they accepted 42 real estate lawsuits last year, twice the number they heard in 2003.

The court has already accepted 15 such suits during the first two months of this year. "The main reason for the increase in these types of disputes is that the city's real estate prices keep rising, which often leads to sellers breaching their contract," said Li Hongguang, a judge with the Jing'an court.

He said most disputes focus on deposits paid to buy second-hand apartments. In several cases, sellers have decided they don't want to part with their apartments after receiving a deposit from the buyer, because real estate prices jump and they feel they can put the flat back on the market at a higher price.

The court recently ordered a real estate seller surnamed Zhao to return a 250,000 yuan (US$30,120) deposit to a buyer after he canceled the sale. Zhao was also ordered to pay an additional 250,000 yuan in compensation.

In need of money, Zhao entrusted an agency to sell his apartment on Dagu Road last March. He later signed a contract with the buyer surnamed Shen with the price set at 2.9 million yuan. A few weeks after Shen signed the contract and paid the deposit, Zhao began to regret his decision to sell, as prices of apartments in the area had continued to rise quickly."Disputes caused by commission payments are also becoming common. In these cases, the interests of the real estate agencies are often harmed," Li said.

After being introduced to each other by a real estate agency, some buyers and sellers sign a deal privately, in order to avoid paying service fees to the agencies.

Source: Shenzhen Daily News