China's property market continues to cool

China’s residential property market continued to see cooling signs with the number of cities recording price increases from a month ago dropping further in November, official data showed Saturday.

Nationwide, new home prices in 63 cities climbed from a month ago, a decrease of two from October. In the pre-occupied housing market, 51 cites recorded month-over-month price growth, a retreat of three from October, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which monitors home prices in 70 major cities around the country.

New home prices in the four gateway cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen rose an average 0.3 percent from October, with Beijing and Shanghai witnessing a growth of 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. New housing price in Guangzhou stayed unchanged while that in Shenzhen slipped 0.2 percent. In the existing housing market, prices in the four cities fell an average 0.4 percent. They were down 0.6 percent, 0.1 percent, 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively, in the four cities, according to the bureau.

In the 31 second-tier cities, home prices in new and existing markets climbed 1 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively, both unchanged from a month ago.

Both new and existing home prices in the 35 third-tier cities climbed at a slower rate in November from a month ago. They rose 0.9 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, in the new and pre-used home market, compared with a growth of 1.1 percent and 0.5 percent in October.

Nationwide, new home prices in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, witnessed the biggest month-on-month increase of 2.9 percent, the bureau's data showed.

On a year-on-year basis, prices of new and existing homes in the four first-tier cities rose 1.5 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, in November. In second-tier cities, they jumped 11.1 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively, and in third-tier ones, prices advanced 10.5 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively, in new and pre-occupied markets.

In a separate report released on Friday by the bureau, new home sales by value, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 14.8 percent to 10.99 trillion yuan (US$1.59 trillion) in the first 11 months of this year. That compared with the 15 percent increase of the first 10 months and the 15.6 percent increase of the first three quarters.

By area, they increased 2.1 percent from the same period a year earlier to 1.287 billion square meters, also down from the 2.8 percent growth in the first 10 months and the 3.3 percent increase in the first nine months.

Investment in residential property development, which took up 70.9 percent of total real estate investment in the first 11 months, rose 13.6 percent year on year to 7.8 trillion yuan, decelerating from the 13.7 percent growth recorded in the first 10 months and the 14 percent increase of the first three quarters, according to the bureau.