China’s new home prices rose for the fourth straight month in July, but the pace slowed, official data showed on Tuesday, as the industry is now in the traditionally slack July-August season.
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The NBS reported prices rose in 31 of 70 cities surveyed, up from 27 in June.
Average new-home prices in 100 cities tracked by SouFun Holdings Ltd., which owns China’s biggest property website, rose 0.54 percent in July from June.
According to NBS statistician Liu Jianwei, home prices in first-tier cities, where demand is high, saw strong growth. The cooling has continued into 2015, with both sales and prices falling and investment slowing. The central bank sets the reference rate every morning and allows the currency to move upto 2 percent from that level. Yes, prices in the southern city are soaring.
Compared to the same month of the prior year, house prices climbed in 67 out of the 70 cities during July.
New housing construction stood at 817.3 million square meters in the period, plunging 16.8 percent from a year earlier, NBS data showed.
China Vanke (2202.HK), the country’s largest property developer, said on Monday that the housing market is slowly emerging from a year-long slump, but it will take time to see a full recovery.
While policy tweaks and increasing lending helped fuel a wave of pent-up home buying in recent months, a huge overhang of unsold houses in smaller cities keeps the sector under pressure.
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Bank of Communications forecast that the recovery of the housing market will continue this year as liquidity remains ample and expectations of rising prices will further prompt more people to buy.
