According to the changes in the national residential sales released by the National Bureau of Statistics on February 18, compared with December last year, among the 70 large and medium-sized cities, there were 48 cities with prices falling in January this year, and 22 were flat; the price of second-hand housing declined. There are 54 cities and 11 flat ones. Specific to the three major cities of Shandong Jinan, Qingdao, Yantai, the sales volume and price of new residential and second-hand housing sales have shown a downward trend. All the data shows that the house price has entered the turning point. The furniture industry downstream of the real estate industry is also chilly. For dealers, this year is a year that makes them very upset.

Colder "winter" is coming

Since the first half of last year, furniture dealers have already experienced the coldness brought about by real estate regulation. “May 1st” sales were weak, “Golden September and Silver 10” became “Copper, Nine and Ten Irons”. In the repeated changes of waiting and disappointment, furniture dealers had a difficult year.

Since this year, the business of various stores has not only failed to improve, but has become even more depressed. Take Qingdao as an example, including Fuerma, Ginza, Haibo, Daon, Shuyuan, Haojia, Shengshide, Century Mercure, Red Star Macalline, whether it is a local regional store or a national chain store. Sales have seen a significant decline. A "winter" that is colder than last year is coming.

Store rents remain high

The sluggish market has put dealers under tremendous rent pressure. The author interviewed a number of store owners and dealers to understand that the operating costs of dealers in the store mainly include rent, renovation, labor, electricity, promotional activities, warehouse rental fees. Among them, the decoration fee can often be reimbursed from the manufacturer; although the labor, electricity and promotion activities have increased, the growth rate is still within the acceptable range; in recent years, due to the fast delivery cycle of the manufacturers, the dealers who need to lease the warehouse inventory The less you come, the less than one-fifth of the total number of dealers, and the warehouse rental fee is no longer the main cost.

Among all the costs, the most unbearable for dealers is rent. At present, some large high-end stores in Qingdao have a monthly rent of more than 200 yuan per square meter. Due to the sluggish business in recent years, the sales of some pavements in the store are even lower than the store rent. Compared with high-end hypermarkets, the rents of other popular supermarkets in Qingdao are much cheaper, most of them are around 80 yuan per square meter per month, and some low-end stores are rented at around 45 yuan per square meter. But even then, the 200-square-meter store has a monthly rent of 9,000 yuan. In the case of a cold business, dealers are unbearable.

The consequences of high rent are very serious

High rents were caused by hypermarkets when the furniture market was overheated in the past few years. Once the market turned cold, the negative consequences of high rents began to appear.

First, it caused the merchants in the store to withdraw. It is understood that the exit rate of merchants in Qingdao furniture stores reached 20% last year, and the exit rate of a furniture store even reached more than 70%. Even the dealers of the famous furniture brand Futaba, which has been selling well in the past, have also been withdrawn from the Fulma International Expo Center because of the unsustainable operation.

Second, the conflict between dealers and stores has intensified. Last year, a high-end furniture store in a financial business district in Qingdao, because of high rents, low passenger flow, dealers and stores against each other, alarmed the Qingdao Municipal Government, the government personally intervened in mediation to discuss the future direction of the store.

Under pressure, rents have fallen back

Since the beginning of this year, Qingdao has gone from the city to the surrounding counties and cities. In the past, 10% of the annual rent increase has finally stagnated and even dropped. It is understood that although the rents of various stores in Qingdao have not dropped much this year, the rental concession period has been extended; some stores have introduced new policies in order to attract customers, and those dealers who can pay the three-year rent once will be given a considerable amount. discount.

For the development of the second half of this year and the market expectations for next year, Qingdao dealers are not very optimistic, and some dealers began to shrink and restructure, waiting for the market to warm up. If the business has been deserted, it is not excluded that more stores will adopt rent reduction to stabilize the merchants in the market.