Home prices in top-tier cities climb higher in January

The growth of new home prices in China's first-tier cities picked up in January while there was a moderate slowdown in lower-tier areas, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

In the four gateway cities, new home prices rose by an average 0.4 percent compared with December’s 0.2 percent rise, according to the bureau, which monitors housing prices in 70 major Chinese cities.

Beijing saw no change from a month earlier while Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen recorded month-over-month gains of 0.5 percent, 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

In the pre-occupied housing market, prices in the four gateway cities added 0.5 percent on average, accelerating from December’s 0.4 percent rise. Shenzhen led all with a monthly gain of 0.7 percent, while in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, they edged up 0.4 percent, 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

In 31 second-tier cities and 35 third-tier cities, new home prices rose by an average of 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, easing from December’s 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent growth. Prices of existing homes in second-tier cities remained unchanged from a month earlier, compared with a 0.1 percent rise in December. In third-tier cities, prices of existing homes rose by 0.2 percent on average, even with the previous month.

Nationwide, new home prices in Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, rose 1.4 percent in January, the largest month-on-month increase, bureau data showed.

On a year-on-year basis, prices of new homes added 3.8 percent, 6.9 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively, in first-, second- and third-tier cities. In the pre-occupied market, they gained 2.2 percent, 3.4 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, from the same period a year ago.