China's once red-hot property market has slowed massively.Liu Junfeng/VCG/Getty Images To drive up sales, some cities in China have come up with unusual measures. They include arranging for residents to make property purchases as a group for discounts. A small city in eastern China is asking civil servants to sell real-estate to family and friends. China's real-estate market is in distress, with home buyers refusing to pay their mortgages and home sales slumping 40% by value in July from a year ago.The developments follow Beijing's crackdown on excessive borrowing in 2020, leading to last year's Evergrande debt crisis, which has since spilled over to other developers.