China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Home sales grow 16 percent in November, slowest pace in 2016
China’s home sales grew at the slowest pace this year in November, as renewed property curbs in red-hot markets hurt demand.
The value of new homes sold rose 16 percent to 910 billion yuan ($132 billion) last month from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data the National Bureau of Statistics released on Tuesday. The increase compares with a 38 percent year-on-year gain the previous month.
Shanghai, which introduced restrictions in March, last month increased the down-payment threshold for first-home purchasers from 30 percent to as much as 70 percent if they have mortgage loan record, dealing a blow to purchasers seeking to buy more expensive homes. Tianjin raised minimum down-payment requirements for first-time buyers by 5 percentage points, while eastern Hangzhou ruled more nonlocal buyers ineligible, on top of curbs released recently.
“Policy makers have achieved their earlier target of a stabilized property market, and another round of intensive tightening may not be seen quickly,” Zhao Yang, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc, said in a conference call on Monday. Even so, the cooling market may translate into plunging home prices, and potentially hurt real estate investment by a larger amount than expected, Zhao added.
Investment in real estate development gained 5.7 percent last month in the slowest year-on-year increase in four months, according to Bloomberg calculations based on official data. New property starts, a leading indicator of investment, increased 3.3 percent, contracting from a 20 percent gain in October.