Figures out yesterday confirmed that China’s housing sector is the driver of economic growth at the moment. Prices rose in a majority of the country’s 70 major cities in April on both an annual and a monthly basis. And they grew by the fastest rate for two years.
That follows several months of rising investment and sales off the back of higher spending by governments and buyers.
On an annual basis prices rose in 46 out of 70 cities surveyed and fell in 23, while in monthly terms prices rose in 65 cities and fell in five, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, released yesterday.
Major top-tier cities once again led gains, pulling up overall growth. For example, in Shenzhen prices jumped 62.4% year-on-year, accelerating from a rise of 61.1% in March. That’s a continuation of months of strong growth in the southern metropolis.
Shanghai’s new house prices were also up 25% year on year, while those in Beijing, Nanjing, Xiamen and Hefei reported gains around 20% year on year.
Overall prices of new residential buildings rose 6.2% year on year in April, according to Reuters. But the Wall Street Journal reported a small annual rise in April of 4.1% after the 2.9% rise in March and 1.9% in February.
Prices rose month on month by 1% in April.The Journal said there were signs of slowing price growth in some cities after authorities moved to control speculation.
Month-over-month prices rose 2.3% in Shenzhen in April, down from 3.7% in March. Shanghai prices were up 3.1^ in April from March when they rose 3.6%.
Yesterday’s data though confirmed data released at the weekend which showed China’s housing sales rose in the first four months of the year.
Housing sales rose 61.4% from a year earlier to 2.41 trillion yuan ($US368 billion) during the January-to-April period, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday.
That was after a 60.3% jump in sales in the three months to March. In terms of floor area, housing sales rose 38.8% to 323.2 million square meters in the first four months of the year.
Investment growth in China’s real-estate development rose 7.2%, up from the 6.2% gain recorded in the first quarter this year, and construction starts across residential and commercial real estate rose 21.4%.
