HOUSE prices continued to rise in a growing number of Chinese cities in December, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
Excluding government-funded affordable housing, prices rose in 54 of the 70 cities tracked by the bureau, compared with 53 in November and 35 in October. Prices were flat in eight cities while the remaining eight registered falls.
Guangzhou led with a monthly increase of 1.2 percent, double that of November.
Year on year, new home prices rose in 40 of the 70 cities, an increase of 15 from November.
"With renewed concerns on property prices, the central government might become less tolerant with local governments' fine-tuning measures," said Sam Xie, director of CBRE Research. "However, in view of high levels of inventory and continued imposition of austerity measures including home purchase restrictions in major cities, we do not expect any significant price increases in 2013."
In Shanghai, new home prices rose 0.7 percent after climbing 0.2 percent in November while in Beijing they rose 1 percent from 0.8 percent. In Shenzhen, they rose 1.1 percent, compared to November's 0.6 percent gain.
The trend was similar in the existing home market, with 46 cities seeing price increases in December, compared to 35 in November. The number of cities where prices gained from a year earlier also rose from 18 in November to 25 last month.
Major rebound
China's residential market first saw a major rebound in transaction volume in the second quarter of 2012, mainly driven by lower prices and preferential lending rates for first-time buyers.
The momentum extended to the year end and is expected to remain stable this year as restrictive policies remain in place, industry analysts said.
Between January and December, the value of new home purchases, excluding the government-funded apartments, jumped 10.9 percent from 2011 to 5.34 trillion yuan (US$847 billion) across the country, according to a separate bureau report. By sales volume, 984.68 million square meters of new residential properties were sold in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 2 percent.
Investment in residential development jumped 11.4 percent last year to 4.93 trillion yuan, 68.8 percent of the country's overall investment in real estate development, the statistics bureau said.
Excluding government-funded affordable housing, prices rose in 54 of the 70 cities tracked by the bureau, compared with 53 in November and 35 in October. Prices were flat in eight cities while the remaining eight registered falls.
Guangzhou led with a monthly increase of 1.2 percent, double that of November.
Year on year, new home prices rose in 40 of the 70 cities, an increase of 15 from November.
"With renewed concerns on property prices, the central government might become less tolerant with local governments' fine-tuning measures," said Sam Xie, director of CBRE Research. "However, in view of high levels of inventory and continued imposition of austerity measures including home purchase restrictions in major cities, we do not expect any significant price increases in 2013."
In Shanghai, new home prices rose 0.7 percent after climbing 0.2 percent in November while in Beijing they rose 1 percent from 0.8 percent. In Shenzhen, they rose 1.1 percent, compared to November's 0.6 percent gain.
The trend was similar in the existing home market, with 46 cities seeing price increases in December, compared to 35 in November. The number of cities where prices gained from a year earlier also rose from 18 in November to 25 last month.
Major rebound
China's residential market first saw a major rebound in transaction volume in the second quarter of 2012, mainly driven by lower prices and preferential lending rates for first-time buyers.
The momentum extended to the year end and is expected to remain stable this year as restrictive policies remain in place, industry analysts said.
Between January and December, the value of new home purchases, excluding the government-funded apartments, jumped 10.9 percent from 2011 to 5.34 trillion yuan (US$847 billion) across the country, according to a separate bureau report. By sales volume, 984.68 million square meters of new residential properties were sold in 2012, a year-on-year increase of 2 percent.
Investment in residential development jumped 11.4 percent last year to 4.93 trillion yuan, 68.8 percent of the country's overall investment in real estate development, the statistics bureau said.
