NBS: New home prices stable in October

HOUSING prices in China were generally stable in October as the domestic residential market continued to cool down following tightening measures.

On a month-over-month basis, new residential housing prices in China’s four first-tier cities stayed unchanged from September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which tracks home prices in 70 major cities.

New home prices rose in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, by 0.2 percent, 0.2 percent, and 0.1 percent, respectively, and fell 0.5 percent in Shenzhen.

In the pre-occupied home market, housing prices in the four gateway cities slipped 0.2 percent in September. They dipped in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, by 0.2 percent each, and dropped 0.6 percent in Shenzhen, the bureau’s data showed.

In the 31 second-tier cities, home prices in new and existing markets climbed 1 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively, down 0.1 and 0.5 percentage point from a month earlier.

It was a mixed performance in 35 third-tier cities where new home prices rose at a faster pace of 1.1 percent, and existing housing prices climbed at a slower rate of 0.5 percent.

Nationwide, new home prices in Guiyang in Guizhou Province recorded the biggest month-onmonth increase of 4.2 percent, the bureau’s data showed.

On a year-on-year basis, prices of new and existing homes in the first-tier cities rose 1.2 percent and 1 percent, respectively, in October. In second-tier cities, they jumped 10.4 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively, while thirdtier cities saw a 10 percent and 7.7 percent advance, respectively.

The bureau’s data again showed a continuously cooling residential market.

New home sales by value, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 15 percent to 9.83 trillion yuan (US$1.42 trillion) between January and October, compared with the 15.6 percent increase in the first nine months. By area, they increased 2.8 percent from the same period a year earlier to 1.15 billion square meters, down from the 3.3 percent growth recorded in the first three quarters.

Investment in residential property development, which took up 70.8 percent of total real estate investment in the first 10 months, rose 13.7 percent year on year to 7.03 trillion yuan, decelerating from the 14 percent growth recorded in the first nine months.