China new home prices rise for first time in a year in January
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
New home prices in China were up 0.1 per cent month on month in January versus a 0.2 per cent slide in December 2022.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
BEIJING – China’s new home prices rose for the first time in a year in January, official data showed on Thursday, as the end of the zero-Covid regime, favourable property policies and market expectations for more stimulus measures boosted demand.
New home prices in January were up 0.1 per cent month on month versus a 0.2 per cent slide in December,
More major cities among the 70 surveyed by NBS reported increases in new home prices in January, with 36 cities seeing price rises, up from 15 in December 2022.
“We believe that with the strong policy support from both demand and financing sides, the sales will start to rebound significantly from late second quarter. Any early boom will be positive for the growth outlook,” said Mr Zhou Hao, chief economist at Guotai Junan International Holdings.
The property sector, once an engine of the world’s second-largest economy, has been hobbled by fragile demand and developers’ mounting debt defaults.
The authorities have rolled out a flurry of aggressive stimulus measures to prop up the sector since late 2022, including encouraging property financing and allowing eligible cities to cut or abolish the floor on mortgage rates for first-home buyers.
Sentiment has been improving, buoyed by Beijing’s Covid-19 policy U-turn in December
Private surveys show home sales by floor area slumping around 20 per cent from a year earlier. Official sales figures will be released in mid-February.
The market expects Beijing to roll out more easing measures to further revive the sector, especially during or after a highly anticipated annual Parliament meeting starting in early March.
Prices were down 1.5 per cent year on year in January, with the rate of decline unchanged from December 2022.
“The roots of the crisis in China’s property sector lie in the worsening long-term outlook for demand,” said Mr Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics. “This has not improved. But sales started the year so beaten down that a short-run cyclical recovery is likely.” REUTERS
