Update | China new home prices rise at slower pace in July

China’s housing market maintained its recovery momentum in July, with prices rising for the fourth straight month, albeit at a slower pace, official data showed on Tuesday.

The National Bureau of Statistics said the month-on-month gain of average new home prices across 70 major cities on its radar screen slowed 0.2 percentage points in July from June, without giving any specific numbers for the two months.

“Tier-1 cities all posted strong month-on-month increase, most tier-2 cities reported rises but at slower paces than in tier-1 cities, and most tier-3 cities still suffered declines,” senior statistician Liu Jianwei said.

New home prices started to rise in April under a slew of strong government measures, after falling in the previous 10  months. Last month, they rose in 31 cities, up from June’s 27, led by a gain of 6.3 per cent in Shenzhen.

In year-on-year terms, the prices of existing homes in the 70 cities rose 0.2 per cent in July, ending the 10-month losing streak. However, prices of new homes continued to fall, by 0.4 per cent, the statistics agency said.

Yu Liang, president of China Vanke, the country’s biggest developer, said on Monday that the industry is recovering, but slowly, as destocking will take a while.

That seems to be the market consensus now, despite the recent hit from the stock market rout and sudden yuan depreciation last week.