Daily Times

BEIJING: China’s property market in major cities has stabilized as authorities move to curb price rises.

Of 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed in February, more than half of them saw month-on-month price declines or rises less than 0.5 percent for new residential housing, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Among them, 12 saw a price drop, with new residential housing prices in two cities flat in February, said NBS senior statistician Liu Jianwei. Another 19 cities saw home price gains higher than 0.5 percent last month.

New residential home prices in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai rose 0.1 percent on average in February, while second-tier and third-tier cities registered price gains of 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. On a year-on-year basis, February gains in 20 cities decelerated from January, added Liu.

“Sales of newly-built homes in 15 major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen slowed in February on the back of targeted local government policies,” Liu said. Since October last year, dozens of Chinese cities have announced measures including purchase limits and mortgage restrictions to prevent prices from rising out of control.