New home price rise slows in major cities
NEW home prices in China’s first and second-tier cities rose at a slower pace in July amid strict enforcement of tightening policies, official data showed yesterday.
On a month-on-month basis, new residential housing prices in the four first-tier cities edged up 0.2 percent in July, compared with a 0.6 percent gain in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which tracks housing price changes in 70 cities around the country.
Shanghai was the only city among the four that registered a monthly decrease. New home price fell 0.1 percent in the city last month, while it climbed 0.2 percent, 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, respectively, according to bureau data.
On a year-on-year basis, new home prices in first-tier cities gained 0.2 percent.
In the 31 second-tier cities monitored by the bureau, new home prices increased 1.1 percent from a month earlier, compared with the 1.2 percent growth recorded in June.
In contrast, new home prices in the 35 third-tier cities, most of which are still plagued by high inventories, rose 1.5 percent from a month earlier, accelerating from the 0.7 percent rise in June, data showed.
In the pre-owned home market, prices in first, second and third-tier cities rose by 0.2 percent, 1 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively, from June.
“Differentiated policies to curb speculation continued to be adopted around the country in July as local governments worked hard to balance supply and demand to ensure healthy development of the housing market,” said Liu Jianwei, senior statistician of the bureau.
Among the 15 “hotspot” cities where speculative home purchases are monitored, two registered month-on-month decline in new home prices, unchanged from June. Four cities posted year-on-year drops, a decrease of three from June, according to the bureau.
The central government has pledged to tame housing price surges that fuel massive concerns about asset bubbles. It has implemented a slew of tightening measures, mainly including home purchase restrictions, higher down payment ratios and mortgage rates, as well as the introduction of a lockup period for home sales.
Major cities announced 260 control measures during the first seven months of this year, 80 percent more than the same period of last year, according to Centaline Group research.
Analysts expect more control measures to be announced as the central government vowed to regulate the property market and “firmly curb the rise in home prices” at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee last month.
The government will accelerate the establishment of a long-term mechanism to promote the stable and healthy development of the market, Cong Liang, spokesman for the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference yesterday.
The property market will continue to adjust amid the increasingly tightened regulation, said Liu Weimin, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council.