China’s property prices continue to rise month on month
BEIJING: China’s property market continued to show signs of recovery in March, with most of the surveyed major cities reporting month-on-month rises in new home prices, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Of 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed in March, 62 saw new home prices month-on-month increases, up from 47 the previous month, it quoted the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Meanwhile,eightcitiesreported month-on-month price declines, down from 15 in February.
On a yearly basis, 40 cities posted new-home price increases and 29 reported falls in March, compared with 32 and 37 in February.
New-home prices soared 62.5 per cent year-on-year in the southern city of Shenzhen, the sharpest increase last month among all the major cities, followed by Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing, where prices surged 30.5 per cent, 17.8 per cent and 17.6 per cent, respectively.
The northeastern city of Dandong registered the steepest price decline of 3.8 per cent over the previous year.
Prices for existing homes also continued to pick up in March, with 54 cities reporting higher month-on-month prices and 13 reporting lower prices.
Xinhua said China’s housing market started to recover in the second half of last year after cooling for more than a year, boosted by government support measures, including interest rate cuts and lower deposit requirements.
In February, taxes on some property transactions were slashed and further reductions to the minimum down payments for eligible first- and second-time home buyers were announced. — Bernama