China's home prices remain stable in October

New home prices in China’s 15 hottest markets remained stable in October as differentiated measures to rein in speculation continued to take effect.

Tianjin, Shanghai and Chengdu were the cities where the price of new homes edged up from September, by 0.1 percent, 0.3 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. Prices in Hangzhou, Hefei and Fuzhou recorded no change while the rest nine cities registered decreases ranging from 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which tracks property prices in 70 major cities.

On a yearly basis, 13 cities continued to see slower growth, decelerating by up to 3.7 percentage points.

New home price in Guangzhou rose 7.7 percent from the same period a year ago, down from the 9.4 percent gain registered in September.

In Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, new residential prices fell 0.2 percent, 0.3 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, compared with a rise of 0.5 percent, a dip of 0.1 percent and a drop of 3.8 percent in September.

“Nationwide, first-tier cities recorded month-on-month price decreases in new housing markets while prices of pre-occupied residential properties remained unchanged,” the bureau’s statistician Liu Jianwei said. “In second and third-tier cities, prices of existing houses either recorded same or smaller increases from a month ago.”

Across the country, 14 out of the 70 cities witnessed month-on-month price drops in their new home markets, compared to 18 in September.

In the pre-occupied housing market, 20 cities suffered price setbacks from a month ago, an increase of seven from September, according to the bureau.

New home sales in China slowed down to single-digit expansion in the first 10 months of this year as the domestic property market continued to stabilize amid strictly-enforced measures to quell speculation in overheated markets, data released earlier by the bureau showed.

More than 8.55 trillion yuan (US$1.29 trillion) worth of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, was sold between January and October, a year-on-year increase of 9.6 percent. That decelerated from the 11.4 percent rise registered in the first three quarters.

By area, new residential properties sold in the 10-month period climbed 5.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.12 billion square meters, compared to the 7.6 percent growth in the first nine months.