Steady progress: Buildings under construction in Chongqing. Top Chinese officials anticipate a recovery in the property sector to help shield the country from expected US tariff hikes. — Bloomberg
BEIJING: China’s decline in new-home prices continued to ease for a fifth consecutive month in January, suggesting values are stabilising as policymakers intensify efforts to end the property slump.
New home prices in 70 cities, excluding state-subsidised housing, fell 0.07% from December when they declined 0.08%, National Bureau of Statistics figures showed yesterday.
Values of used homes, which are subject to less government intervention, fell 0.34% compared with a 0.31% drop a month earlier.
The figures offer a glimmer of hope for officials that are trying to end the housing slump that has weighed on Asia’s largest economy for more than three years.
Still, a solid rebound in sales is a prerequisite to put a floor under prices, according to Fitch Ratings.
“We turn less bearish on the sector from February,” Citigroup Inc analysts including Griffin Chan wrote in a recent report, citing better-than-expected new home sales from the start of the year and a sharp rebound in homebuyer visits.
The property sector has shown “early signs on the path to stabilisation”, they wrote.
The slump eased on a year-on-year basis too.
New home prices fell 5.43% in January, compared with 5.73% in December, the statistics bureau said.
Existing home prices dropped 7.8%, versus 8.11% a month earlier.
China has taken more steps to put a floor under the property crisis, most recently through unprecedented state intervention in China Vanke Co.
It is one of the country’s last real estate giants yet to default.
Authorities are working on a proposal to help the developer plug a funding gap of about 50 billion yuan this year.
Top Chinese officials anticipate a recovery in the property sector will help to shield the country from expected US tariff hikes.
China has been shifting to pro-consumption policies including an effort to boost household income and strengthen the social safety net, People’s Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng said in a speech in Saudi Arabia last Sunday.
Risks from the property market have been “greatly reduced”, he said.
While the support has triggered a sigh of relief in equity and bond markets, signs in the broader housing market remain mixed.
A rebound in household medium and long-term loans, a proxy for residential mortgages, points to a potential improvement in home sales.
Such credit increased by 493.5 billion yuan in January, the most in a year.
But figures from researcher China Real Estate Information Corp showed residential sales resumed falling in January after being flat in December.
“Key indicators we are tracking do not yet point to a bottom in China’s property market,” Moody’s analysts led by Roy Zhang wrote in a report this week.
“We continue to expect the value of contracted sales to decline in 2025, although at a slower pace.” — Bloomberg
