FILE PHOTO: A man riding a bicycle drives past an apartment building in Beijing, March 18, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
November 18, 2017
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s new home prices rose at a slightly faster pace in October after gains had held steady the previous month, as prices remained resilient in a tighter liquidity environment and amid government measures to cool the property boom.
Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose by 0.3 in October from the previous month, compared with a 0.2 percent increase in September, according to Reuters calculations from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data out on Saturday.
Compared with a year earlier, new home prices rose 5.4 percent in October, cooling from an 6.3 percent increase in September.
China’s housing market has seen a near two-year boom, giving the economy a major boost but also stirring fears of a property bubble.
Home prices have slowly leveled out and even softened in the biggest cities in recent months under the weight of increasingly stringent cooling measures, though some smaller cities are still seeing appreciable rises.
While market watchers do not anticipate significant price declines or a crash, weakness in property and construction is starting to drag on broader economic growth. The central bank has warned that household debt is rising too quickly.
(Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Robert Birsel)