Housing Prices

The housing market remained generally stable in February, with home prices in 70 major cities showing slight month-on-month increases, official data showed on March 16.

New home prices in four firsttier cities—Beijing, Shanghai,

Shenzhen and Guangzhou— rose 0.5 percent month on month, compared with a 0.6-percent increase in January, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Prices of second-hand homes in the four cities gained 0.5 percent, up 0.4 percentage point month on month.

New home prices in 31 second-tier cities remained flat compared with that in January, while those in 35 third-tier cities witnessed a month-on-month decrease of 0.3 percent.

On a year-on-year basis, new home prices in first-tier cities rose 4.4 percent in February, flat with the expansion in January. Prices in second-tier cities went up 2.1 percent while those in thirdtier cities decreased 0.1 percent compared with the same period last year.

The slower year-on-year growth is due to the month-onmonth declines in the second half, especially the OctoberDecember period, of 2021, Yan Yuejin, Research Director at E-House China R&D Institute, said.

China’s investment in property development rose 3.7 percent year on year to roughly 1.45 trillion yuan ($227.26 billion) in the first two months of 2022, the latest NBS data showed.

In this year’s government work report, China reiterated the principle of “housing is for living in, not for speculation,” vowing to keep land prices, housing prices and market expectations stable.