New housing market performance across China a mixed bag

New housing markets in China registered mixed performances in December across different tiered cities while cooling signs continued to dominate pre-owned residential markets across the country, official data showed on Wednesday.

On a month-over-month basis, new home prices in the four first-tier cities rose 1.3 percent on average in December, accelerating from 0.3 percent growth in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which monitors home prices in 70 major cities around the country.

Notably, new home prices in Guangzhou rose 3 percent, the fastest among the four and the country as a whole. In Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, the increase was 1 percent, 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

"New home sales in the four gateway cities picked up during the year-end period and property prices also went upward," said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at the bureau. "In second and third-tier cities, meanwhile, slower price growth was recorded as stability continued to prevail."

New home prices in 31 second-tier cities and 35 third-tier cities both rose 0.7 percent last month, compared with an increase of 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively in November, the bureau's data showed.

In the pre-occupied housing market, prices in the four gateway cities all shed from a month earlier, leading to an average decrease of 0.3 percent in December. In second-tier cities, prices of existing homes edged up 0.1 percent on average, compared with a 0.3 percent growth in November. In tertiary cities the rise was 0.3 percent in December, slower than the 0.2 percent gain recorded a month earlier.

On a year-over-year basis, prices of new and pre-occupied homes in the four first-tier cities advanced 2.8 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, in December. In second and third-tier cities, new home prices jumped 11.3 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively, from the same period a year ago, while in the pre-used home market, prices rose 7.9 percent and 8.2 percent respectively.