New China home prices taper off in June

Clampdown on fiery property markets takes effect

Only 63 of 70 cities in mainland China recorded average new home price increases in June, compared with 67 in May, Mingtiandi reported, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The price decrease comes as home sales by area skid to a decelerating pace in the mainland. While it hit CNY6.13 billion (USD890.7 million), new home sales in the first six months of 2019 represented an area of 661.8 million square metres, a decrease of one percent from the same period in 2018.

Analysts attributed slower growth to strict guidelines and warnings by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development (MOHURD) since April with regards to overheating property markets.

More: Beijing home resales hit five-year low

The city of Yichang in Hubei Province recorded the most negative growth in new home prices at 0.4 percent in the month to June. Similarly, new home prices in Beijing posted a monthly decline of 0.1 percent.

Beijing, along with three other tier-one cities — Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen — saw new home prices grow just 0.2 percent in the month to June, down from the 0.3 percent month-on-month rise in May.

“The sales price of new commercial residential buildings in the first, second and third tier cities was the same as or similar to that of the previous month,” NBS statistician Liu Janwei was quoted as saying.