New home prices show slight growth nationwide in March

New home prices across China registered month-on-month growth in March, data released today by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

In the four first-tier cities, Shenzhen was the only city that saw its new housing price decline from a month ago, but only by 0.1 percent. 

In Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, new home prices climbed 0.1 percent, 0.2 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively, from February.

That compared to February, when all of the four gateway cities recorded price falls of between 0.2 percent and 0.6 percent.

In second- and third-tier cities, meanwhile, new home prices continued to rise from a month ago, the bureau’s data showed.

“In general, new home markets in 15 major Chinese cities maintained price stability in March,” said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at the bureau. “Nationwide, differentiated measures to regulate the residential property market continued to be implemented, showing consistency and continuity in government policies.”

Seven of the 15 hottest cities, including first-tier and key second-tier cities, saw new home prices decline by 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent in February. Prices in two cities were flat from a month earlier, while the rest recorded minor increases of 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent.

On an annual basis, new home prices in nine of the 15 cities shed between 0.3 percent and 2.3 percent, and the remainder saw rises of between 0.1 percent and 1.2 percent.

Among the 70 cities the bureau monitors, new home prices in 10 cities fell month on month, a decrease of six from February. In the pre-occupied housing market, seven cities posted price declines, a drop of eight from a month earlier.

“Notably, more cities around the country witnessed monthly price growth in both new and existing housing markets in March,” Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co wrote in a report. 

That was partially because of seasonal factors, the report said, as the domestic market started to pick up again following the predictable downturn around the spring festival holiday in February.