Home sales slump persists

BEIJING: China’s home sales continued to slump in December, underscoring the challenge to reverse the property downturn amid Covid-19 outbreaks.

The 100 biggest real estate developers saw new home sales drop 30.8% from a year earlier to 677.5 billion yuan (US$98.2bil or RM432bil) in December, according to preliminary data from China Real Estate Information Corp. That compared with a 25.5% decline in November.

The declines came a month after policy makers unveiled a sweeping plan to rescue the sector, focusing mainly on the supply side by easing financing to developers. Those efforts, however, have been offset by surging Covid infections. — Bloomberg