New home prices up as big city demand returns

Market recovery: A man walking past apartment buildings in Beijing. Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities climbed 0.1% from a month earlier in January, compared with a 0.2% drop in December. — Bloomberg

BEIJING: China’s new home prices rose for the first time since September on a monthly basis, official data for January showed yesterday, as efforts to soften the blow from tough regulatory curbs on property supported buyer sentiment, particularly in big cities.

Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities climbed 0.1% from a month earlier in January, compared with a 0.2% drop in December, according to Reuters calculations from data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).