The residential compound where eight people have been murdered. Photo: CFP

By Li Yang

Even though eight people were murdered in recent months in a residential compound in Daxing district, housing prices have not dropped as many expected.

"Everything is okay and everybody is calm here," said a staff member of the residents committee, "they only died from family conflicts, which may have less effect on other people than a simple homicide." The community property management company hired two psychiatrists to help ease the strain of living next to two murder sprees ending in the deaths of eight people.

A restaurant owner, Li Lei, killed his six family members in the community on November 23. About a month later on December 27 in the same residential compound, a father killed his ten-year-old son and wife.

"Most of the residents may feel uncomfortable now, but I haven't heard of anyone planning to sell their house because of the murders," said an elderly resident surnamed Li.

The housing turnover in that compound declined after the two homicide cases, but the average house price has not met with any significant change yet, still over 15,000 yuan ($2,196) per square meter, according to a staff member from Homelink surnamed Ma, a leading real estate agency in Beijing.

Ma told the Global Times that homicide cases do have an influence on the compound's reputation in the real estate market but not much. The compound is located in Daxing's downtown area where there are not many houses still on the market.

"Just after the first homicide, more and more people came here to ask about house prices," Ma said. "I guess some speculators are passing on rumors to make the prices drop so they can buy at a cheap price."

"They believe that both apartments will be sold cheaply, and that the value will rise again three to five years from now," said a member of staff at 5i5j, another real estate agency. "But the apartments haven't been sold yet because the cases are still in court," he said.