Update | New home prices pick up in 39 Chinese cities
Declines seen in third-tier cities owing to oversupply
More Chinese cities saw home prices recover in December as policy easing helped boost demand, official data showed on Monday, but analysts said they were not optimistic about the outlook for smaller cities, where prices are expected to remain sluggish.
New home prices increased in 39 cities last month, compared with 33 in November, among the 70 mainland Chinese cities tracked by the National Bureau of Statistics. They dropped in 27 cities, the same as the previous month, and were unchanged in four.
Gainers were led by Shenzhen, where new home prices climbed 3.2 per cent month on month in December and 46.8 per cent year on year.
“Prices continued to rise in December, but the differentiation is becoming increasingly apparent as prices rose quickly in first-tier and some second-tier cities and declined further in third-tier cities due to oversupply,” senior bureau statistician Liu Jianwei said.
Beijing saw new home prices rise 0.4 per cent last month, while Shanghai was up 1.9 per cent.
On a yearly basis, prices jumped 27.4 per cent in Beijing and 33.8 per cent in Shanghai .