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China’s home prices continued to decline in October and home transaction volume declined further in a traditional peak season as the struggling housing market still lacks confidence.
The average new home prices in China’s 100 major cities reached 16,199 yuan per square meter in October, falling 0.01% from the prior month, after a 0.02% drop in September, sliding for the fourth consecutive month, according to a survey on Tuesday by China Index Academy (CIA), one of the country’s largest independent real estate research firms.
On a year-on-year basis, the average new home price rose 0.06%, narrowing from the 0.15% gain in September, showed the data.
Second-hand home prices in the cities fell by 0.16% on month in October to 15,945 yuan per square meters, expanding from the 0.13% fall in September, dropping for the sixth straight month. The price fell 0.51% from a year earlier, expanding from the 0.39% drop in September,
Among the 100 cities, 54 cities saw new home prices decline from the previous month, while 75 cities saw second-hand home prices decline, the most in two years, according to the data.
A total of 46 cities saw new home prices and second-hand home prices both decline month on month in October, including 21 tier-one and tier-two cities such as Shenzhen, Wuhan and Chongqing, and 25 tier-three and tier-four cities, according to the report.
Residential property transactions, measured in floor area, in major cities fell about 10% in October from the previous month, compared to the 6.1% gain in September, according to separate data from China Index Academy.
The sales slid about 20% from the same period last year, compared to 19.1% drop in September, showed the data.
The weak perfomance came despite that September and October is a traditional busy season for China’s housing market – the so-called “Golden September Silver October”.
The sluggish sales also came after the authorities made intensive moves to support the housing market. The central governments unveiled measures including lower interest rates for first-time home buyers, offering tax rebates for home buyers, etc.
In addition, more than 160 local governments introduced over 230 supportive policy measures in September and October, including easing home purchase restrictions, lower down payment requirement ratio, lower home mortgage rates, increase the maximum borrowing from the Housing Provident Fund, offering home purchase subsidies, relaxing restrictions on home resales, etc, according to data compiled by China Index Academy.