New home prices in China fell on a monthly basis for the first time in more than six years, as Beijing’s measures to cool the property sector begin to bite
BEIJING—New home prices in China fell on a monthly basis for the first time in more than six years in September, new official data showed, as Beijing’s measures to curb housing speculation andAverage new home prices in 70 major cities edged down 0.08% in September from the previous month, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. Though small, it is the first such month-on-month decline since March 2015, and follows August’s 0.16% increase.
Prices of new homes in China’s so-called third-tier cities fell 0.2% from the previous month, after remaining unchanged in August, the statistics bureau said. Compared with a year earlier, average new home prices rose 3.26% in September, slowing from August’s 3.70%. New home prices rose in 59 of 70 cities in September from a year earlier, the same as in August.—including imposing borrowing curbs on developers and limiting their sources of financing—local governments, which derive roughly one-third of their revenue from selling land to property developers, have grown increasingly concerned.