Prices rise in fewer Chinese cities
The number of Chinese cities witnessing a rise in home prices fell for the second month in June on the back of a slower growth pace, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
Prices of new Beijing apartments, excluding government-funded affordable housing, rose in 55 cities last month, five fewer than in May, said the bureau, which monitors prices in 70 cities across the country. They fell in 10 cities and were flat in the remaining five.
Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, led with an increase of 4.9 percent compared with May. It was followed by Xiamen in Fujian Province where prices increased 4.7 percent and Nanjing where they rose 4 percent.
“The pace of price growth in new and pre-owned housing markets both decelerated last month, by 0.1 percentage points and 0.2 percentage points, respectively, from May,” said Liu Jianwei, a senior bureau statistician. “In particular, the average pace in first-tier cities still managed to quicken a little while those in second and third-tier cities continued to slow.”
New home prices in the 70 major cities climbed 1.8 percent on average in June from a month earlier while prices of pre-owned houses gained an average of 1.2 percent from May, the bureau’s data showed.
“Price growth continued to moderate in June, with growth slowing in all cities except first-tier ones,” said James Macdonald, head of China research at Savills, a global real estate consultancy. “We are likely to hear of more supportive measures being introduced in lower-tier cities while at the same time, we are less likely to see more restrictive measures in other-tier cities though markets will be closely monitored over the next couple of months to see which direction they are heading.”
Year on year, new home prices rose in 57 cities in June, fell in 12 cities, and were flat in one.
In the pre-owned market, prices rose in 52 cities in June from a year earlier, fell in 16 cities, and were flat in two.
