Vanke offers discounts to Taobao shoppers

[BEIJING] China Vanke Co, the country's biggest developer, teamed up with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to offer discounts of as much as US$325,000 to home buyers who also shopped on the e-commerce company's Taobao Marketplace.

Vanke will grant discounts of two million yuan (S$405,860) on select properties if the home buyer spent more than two million yuan on Taobao in the last year, according to a statement on Taobao's website. Spending one yuan makes buyers eligible for a 50,000 yuan rebate.

Vanke and other developers have cut prices since March to lure homebuyers amid a slump in the nation's property market, according to China Real Estate Information Corp. Last month, new-home prices fell in the most cities tracked by the government since January 2011, as tight mortgage lending deterred buyers.