ecns [expanded by feedex.net]: Home price growth slows in June, fewer cities see rising trend

ecns [expanded by feedex.net]

ecns

Home price growth slows in June, fewer cities see rising trend
http://www.ecns.cn/business/2013/07-19/73836.shtml
Jul 19th 2013, 04:35

2013-07-19 13:35 Shanghai Daily


The number of Chinese cities recording month-on-month home price increases fell further in June as tightening measures to rein in speculation remained in place, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.


Excluding government-funded affordable housing, new home prices rose in 63 of the 70 cities monitored by the bureau, compared with 65 in May and 67 in April. In the pre-owned housing market, 55 cities saw monthly growth last month, down from 64 in May and 66 in April.


The data showed that new home prices in 38 cities registered slower month-on-month rises, an increase of four cities from May. The maximum monthly growth recorded last month was 2.4 percent, down from 2.9 percent in May.


The existing home market saw 34 cities registering slower increases, compared to 38 cities in May.


Prices of pre-occupied homes rose by up to 1.3 percent in June, down 0.4 percentage points from May.


Fuzhou, capital of southeast China's Fujian Province, saw the biggest increase in new home prices at 2.4 percent last month, closely trailed by Shanghai's 2.2 percent rise. Elsewhere, Beijing and Shenzhen both recorded monthly rises of 1.7 percent while prices in Guangzhou climbed 1 percent.


Five cities - Guiyang, Urumqi, Ganzhou, Shaoguan and Luzhou - saw prices drop, all by 0.1 percent, according to bureau data. Haikou and Wuxi prices were unchanged.


"The number of cities seeing price gains continued to decline last month in both new and existing markets," said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at the bureau. "About half of the cities we have tracked recorded narrowed increases with second- and third-tier cities such as Guilin, Baotou, Taiyuan and Shenyang seeing their price growth decelerating the most."


New home purchases in China rose 46 percent to 2.82 trillion yuan (US$459 billion) in the first half of this year, decelerating from its annual growth of 56.8 percent in the first five months and the 65.2 percent rise registered in the January-April period, the bureau said earlier this week.


Despite easing sentiment, industry analysts expect housing prices to remain solid.


"From a pure supply and demand perspective, we don't see significant downward pressure on housing prices in the second half of this year," said Frank Chen, executive director and head of research at CB Richard Ellis China. "However, this could be altered with noticeable changes in the overall monetary environment, especially bank lending to the real estate sector."





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