China’s new home prices slump at fastest pace in 11 months amid dented buyer confidence


China’s new home prices fell at the fastest pace in 11 months in September across 70 major cities despite easing policies, as high inventories, concerns over job security and economic uncertainty continued to hurt confidence in the property market, analysts said.

New home prices fell 0.4 per cent month on month, following a 0.3 per cent decline in August, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data released on Monday. It was the biggest monthly decline since last October’s 0.5 per cent drop. On a year-on-year basis, prices fell 2.7 per cent in September versus a 3 per cent drop in August, according to the data.

Primary home prices continued to decline sequentially in September across all city tiers. First-tier cities like Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou saw prices fall 0.3 per cent last month, down 0.2 percentage points from August.
Shanghai, the mainland’s commercial capital, however, maintained its upward trend with a 0.2 per cent increase. Beijing bucked the broader trend with a 0.3 per cent rise in September, compared with a 0.4 per cent slide in August. Shenzhen recorded its steepest monthly drop since last September, with a 1 per cent decline.
Beijing bucked the broader trend with a 0.3 per cent rise in primary home prices in September. Photo: EPA
Beijing bucked the broader trend with a 0.3 per cent rise in primary home prices in September. Photo: EPA

New home prices in second-tier cities, meanwhile, fell 0.4 per cent in September, while those in third-tier cities contracted by 0.4 per cent.

“Despite recent targeted housing easing measures at the city level, we believe the property markets in lower-tier cities still face strong headwinds due to weaker growth fundamentals and more severe oversupply problems compared to top-tier cities,” Goldman Sachs said in a research note on Monday.

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