By Liangping Gao, yukun zhang and Ryan Woo
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s home prices fell in November at the slowest pace in 17 months, and the crisis-hit housing market showed signs of stabilization in some major cities amid government efforts to revive the sector. real estate.
New home prices fell 0.1% in November from the previous month, the slowest fall since June last year, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the National Statistics Office on Monday.
Prices fell 0.5% in October compared to the previous month.
On an annual basis, new home prices fell 5.7% after a 5.9% drop the previous month.
“A second consecutive month of improving price data is a positive sign that the housing market is bottoming out, and we expect a bottom to be established in 2025 and the start of an L-shaped recovery to take effect.” said Lynn Song, chief economist. Greater China at ING, he said in a research note.
Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts to revive the country’s real estate sector by introducing new measures to encourage home buying after a government-led campaign to rein in highly leveraged developers triggered a crisis in 2021.
Since September, measures to encourage home buying have included cuts to mortgage rates and minimum down payments, as well as tax incentives to reduce the cost of real estate transactions.
Among the 70 cities surveyed, month-on-month home prices rose in 17 cities, an increase of 10 from the previous month, the data showed.
“The turning point in housing prices in first-tier cities has been reached, but prices in many small cities continue to fall,” said Zhang Dawei, an analyst at real estate agency Centaline.
Larger cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have implemented tax breaks to stimulate housing demand.
Last month, house prices rose 0.6% and 0.3% month-on-month in Shanghai and Shenzhen separately, although they fell 0.5% in Beijing.
“Home purchasing is affected by income stability, demographics and the backlog of real estate inventory, and more policies and time are needed to stabilize the overall housing market,” Zhang said.
Real estate investment and sales fell by double digits between January and November from a year earlier, official data also showed on Monday.
China’s economy has struggled this year, and since September authorities have cut interest rates and made numerous promises to stabilize financial and property markets, boost economic growth and revive consumption.
The country’s top leaders promised during the Central Economic Work Conference, an agenda-setting meeting held on December 11 and 12, to stabilize the real estate market by announcing measures that include controlling the supply of land and moving forward with a plan for local governments to purchase unsold new construction properties for affordable housing.