Home prices on the mainland continued to rise last month, triggering concerns that more cooling measures might be in the offing this year.
Prices in 70 big and small cities rose 0.3 per cent from November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The growth was the same as that a month earlier and slightly higher than the 0.2 per cent increase in October.
On a year-on-year basis, mainland home prices last month rose 6.4 per cent, less than the 7.7 per cent increase recorded in November.
The market slowed in October shortly after the central government announced new policies to curb the property market.
'But now the market is on the rise [again], in terms of sales activity and prices,' said Sherman Lai Ming-kai, the newly appointed chairman of Centaline Property Agency.
Real demand was strong, and there was a lot of liquidity in the market even though the government had taken measures to tighten it, Lai said.
In October, the People's Bank of China raised interest rates for the first time in three years and increased borrowing costs for a second time on December 25. On January 14, Beijing announced an increase of 50 basis points to 19 per cent in its reserve ratio requirements for mainland banks.