China's housing prices remain stable in November

BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's housing market remained stable in November, with slower month-on-month growth in home prices in major cities, official data showed Monday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- rose 0.2 percent month on month in November, 0.1 percentage points slower from the previous month, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

On a month-on-month basis, new home prices in 31 second-tier cities and 35 third-tier ones both edged up 0.1 percent.

Prices of resold homes in first-tier cities edged up 0.5 percent month on month in November, with the rise unchanged from the previous month. Prices in the resold home market in second-tier cities went up 0.1 percent and third-tier cities saw a month-on-month growth of 0.2 percent.

On a year-on-year basis, home prices in first-tier cities went up 3.9 percent last month, retreating from a 4.1-percent expansion seen a month earlier, while those in second-tier cities rose 4.2 percent.

In November, local governments continued to implement the long-term mechanism in the housing market and adopted measures to promote the steady and sound development of the sector, said Sheng Guoqing, a senior NBS statistician.

In the latest quarterly monetary policy report, China's central bank reiterated that the property sector will not be used as a means of short-term stimulus and vowed to maintain the continuity, consistency, and stability of property financial policies.

Facing the sweeping impacts of the coronavirus outbreak and other economic headwinds, Chinese policymakers have kept property policy largely stable in 2020, guiding the market to gradually recover from the virus-induced slump.

China's investment in property development rose 6.3 percent year on year in the first 10 months, picking up from the 5.6-percent increase in the first nine months, official data showed.

Investment in residential buildings came in at 8.63 trillion yuan (about 1.32 trillion U.S. dollars), up 7 percent from the same period last year, quickening from the 6.1-percent surge in Jan.-Sept. period.

Commercial housing sales in terms of floor area totaled 1.33 billion square meters in the first 10 months, basically unchanged compared with the same period last year.