China’s new home prices approach stall speed, as rate of appreciation eases to slowest in nine months
- China’s nationwide new home prices rose 0.61 per cent in January on month, the slowest pace in nine months, according to Bloomberg calculations
- Weakening may persist as policy loosening falls short of expectations, property analyst says
China’s new home prices rose in January at the slowest pace in nine months, as downbeat sentiment and property curbs weighed on the market.
Prices of new homes rose by 0.61 per cent in January over the previous month across 70 cities monitored by the government, according to calculations by Bloomberg of data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The rate of growth is lower than the 0.77 per cent gain recorded in December, which ranked as the slowest clip since April 2018.
“The price growth slowed as the sentiment and outlook turned bearish. But the government has taken on a strategy of keeping prices stable, which means cities where there were price jumps will cool down, but a big price drop is also not going to be permitted,” said Yan Yuejin, research director at E-House China R&D Institute.
Prices of new homes rose in 58 of 70 cities monitored, slightly down from gains seen in 59 cities in December and 63 in November. The slowdown was most prominent in the smaller cities of Yueyang, Hunan province, and Huizhou in Guangdong province, where prices contracted 0.4 per cent from a month earlier.
Price inflation cooled the most in first-tier cities. In Shanghai, prices rose 0.1 per cent on month, easing from a 0.6 per cent gain in December. In Beijing, prices rose 0.6 per cent, easing from a 1 per cent gain in December.
