Home prices see milder increases in China

China continued to see a generally stable housing market in February, with home prices in 70 major cities showing milder month-on-month increases, official data showed Monday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou — stayed unchanged month-on-month in February, compared with a 0.4-percent growth registered in January, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The country's second-tier cities saw a month-on-month increase of 0.1 percent in new home prices, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month, while third-tier cities also witnessed a mild month-on-month rise of 0.1 percent in new home prices, compared with a 0.4-percent increase reported in January.

Prices of resold housing in first-tier cities edged up month on month, though at a slower pace, while prices remained flat in second-tier cities and fell slightly in third-tier cities month-on-month.

Although the unexpected novel coronavirus outbreak has had a noticeable bearing on the country's property market, authorities have introduced a slew of policies and measures to maintain an overall stable real estate market, said Kong Peng, a senior NBS statistician.

China's investment in property development plunged 16.3 percent year on year during the first two months. Investment in residential buildings fell 16 percent from a year earlier, the NBS data also showed.