More signs China’s housing boomlet is slowing, with momentum becoming patchy in sectors.
Data out yesterday showed that average housing prices rose at a slower pace in June from May, as the rebound in the housing market lost some steam as summer started and some cities started to tightening to slow high levels of price gains.
Home prices increased 0.71% in June from May, compared with gains of 0.84% and 1.03% recorded in May and April based on data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics.
On a year-on-year basis, Shenzhen and Xiamen were the two top performers, with home prices rising 46.7% and 33.6%, respectively.
On a year-over-year basis, the average price of new homes in 70 cities rose 5.52% in June, up from 4.96% gain in May and a 4.1% gain in April.
That was the sixth straight month of a year-over-year increase after a turnaround started last December.
But compared with the previous month, the average price of new private homes rose in 55 of 70 cities in June, down from 60 recorded in May.
Compared with the same period a year earlier, the average price of new private homes rose in 57 of 70 cities in June, up from 50 in May.
Home price gains in Beijing and Shenzhen moderated in June from May on a year-on-year basis, and stayed the same in Shanghai over the same period. The recovery in China’s property market since December. and a government infrastructure building spree have helped shore up growth in the world’s second-largest economy, in the first and second quarters.
Data on Friday showed that property investment in the first half of this year (to June 30) rose 6.1% from a year earlier, slowing from an increase of 7% in January-May.
For June alone, property investment was up only 3.5%,down from 6.6% in may.
That slowdown prompted economists at ANZ to declare that China’s property-led recovery was over, which could mean a second half slow down in the wider economy.
And a report out at the weekend showed that China’s residential land prices rose faster in the second quarter than in the previous three months, while those for industrial land posted slower growth.
The report from the Ministry of Land & Resources said residential land prices in 105 cities surveyed rose 1.95% in April-June from the previous quarter, which saw a 1.27% increase from October-December, according to the ministry’s China Urban Land Price Dynamic Monitor.
