Chinese developers are counting on the upcoming Golden Week holiday period to spark a long-awaited revival in home sales, in the first key test of whether recent policy support is enough to arrest the slump.

The eight-day national holiday starting Friday is the center point of the industry¡¯s September-October busy season. The stakes are higher than ever this year, as the housing slowdown weighs on China¡¯s economic recovery and developers that are struggling to refinance rely on cash from sales to meet debt obligations.

¡°Property sales this year have been very lackluster, so for most developers accelerating transactions in the two months will be especially crucial,¡± said Zhang Hongwei, founder of Jingjian Consulting, which advises real estate companies. ¡°Otherwise, they will need to take a bigger hit to push for better sales toward the year end.¡±