China Home Prices Rise in More Cities as Housing Rebounds

China’s housing market continued to pick up in July with new home prices in an increasing number of surveyed cities registering month-on-month rises.

Average new home prices rose 0.3% from June, lower than June’s 0.4% rise. Prices dropped in 29 cities but remained flat in 10 cities.

On a year-on-year basis, average home prices are still 3.7% lower.

The central bank has moved to combat the slowdown, cutting benchmark interest rates four times since November and lowering banks’ reserve requirement ratio twice since February.

Beijing has stepped up curbs on property market speculation after prices surged in one area of the capital, raising concerns some bigger cities may also tighten home purchase rules.

In year-on-year terms, the prices of existing homes in the 70 cities rose 0.2 per cent in July, ending a 10-month losing streak. Yes, prices in the southern city are soaring.

New housing construction stood at 817.3 million square meters in the period, plunging 16.8 percent from a year earlier, NBS data showed.

China Vanke, the country’s largest property developer, said on Monday that the housing market was slowly emerging from a year-long slump, but it would take time to see a full recovery.

Net profit edged up 0.77 percent to 4.85 billion yuan (758.3 million U.S. dollars), a sharp drop from the 5.6 percent expansion in the first half of 2014.

While policy measures and increased lending helped fuel a wave of pent-up home buying in recent months, a huge overhang of unsold houses in smaller cities keeps the sector under pressure.