First-tier home price growth accelerates in November

Home prices in first-tier Chinese cities rose at a faster pace in November while those in second- and third-tier ones grew at a slower rate, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday in a regular monthly report.

In the four gateway cities, new home prices climbed by an average 0.6 percent from October, up 0.5 percentage points from a month ago, according to the bureau, which tracks housing prices in 70 major cities around the country.

In particular, Beijing registered a month-over-month gain of 1.7 percent. It was followed by Shanghai and Shenzhen, where prices advanced 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively. Guangzhou, however, witnessed a retreat. Prices in the southern city shed 0.5 percent in November from a month earlier.

In the pre-occupied housing market, prices in the four cities added 0.2 percent, compared with a 0.1 percent rise in October.

In 31 second-tier cities, new home prices rose by an average of 0.2 percent, decelerating from the 0.5 percent increase recorded in October. Prices of existing homes climbed by 0.1 percent, even with the previous month.

As for 35 third-tier cities monitored by the bureau, new home prices rose by 0.5 percent, 0.1 percentage point slower than that in October. Existing home prices climbed 0.3 percent from a month ago, easing from October's 0.5 percent growth.

"The number of cities recording month-over-month declines continued to rise in November, indicating further stability in the domestic residential market," said Yang Yulei, senior analyst with Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co. "We expect the trend to extend with second- and third-tier cities continuing to see slower price growth."

Across the country, new home prices in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Tangshan, Hebei Province, both rose 1.9 percent in November, the largest month-on-month increases, bureau data show.

On a year-on-year basis, prices of new homes added 4.9 percent, 7.9 percent and 7 percent, respectively, in first-, second- and third-tier cities. In the pre-occupied market, they gained 1 percent, 3.9 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, from same period a year ago, the bureau said.

According to a separate report released by the bureau on the same day, between January and November, about 12.17 trillion yuan (US$1.74 trillion) worth of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, were sold around the country, an increase of 10.7 percent from same period a year ago. This compares with a 10.8 percent increase in the first 10 months.

By area, new homes sold during the same period climbed by 1.6 percent year on year to 1.31 billion square meters, improving from the 1.5 percent rise registered in the first 10 months, the bureau's data showed.

On the inventory side, newly built homes available for sale as of the end of November stood at 222.8 million square meters, down 12.6 percent from a year earlier. That compared with 223.7 million square meters as of the end of October.

Investment in residential property development rose 14.4 percent year on year to 8.92 trillion yuan in the first 11 months.