Chinese home price growth quickened in October, driven by stronger increases in bigger cities, in the eighth month of gains since February’s contraction due to the coronavirus pandemic, a private survey showed.
New home prices in 100 cities rose 0.4% in October from a month earlier, accelerating slightly from September’s 0.24% growth, monthly data from China Index Academy (CIA), among China’s biggest independent real estate research firms, shows.
This is broadly in line with the official price trend released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, which publishes its data for 70 cities around the middle of each month.
Home prices in so-called tier-1 cities including Beijing and Shanghai rose 0.53% in October versus a 0.05% drop in September, the CIA data published on Sunday showed, while prices in smaller tier-2 and 3 cities gained 0.34% and 0.33%, respectively.
“The month-on-month growth for October was still mild, and mainly due to higher price gains in tier-1 cities, where many high-end projects were rolled out last month,” Ma Chen, senior analyst with CIA, said.
Fewer cities reported monthly gains, however, with the number falling to 73 from 76 in September, and 26 cities saw lower home prices, compared with 22 in the preceding month, the CIA data shows.
On an annual basis, new home prices rose 3.52% in October, versus September’s 3.26% gain.
Policymakers have taken a tougher stance in the second half, with regulators increasing scrutiny on financing activities of developers and buyers to prevent rampant growth of leverage.
Land sales by volume grew 4% in the first 10 months, unchanged from January-September, separate CIA data showed.
