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Home sales fall on cool sentiment
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The value and volume of home sales in China fell in the first two months of this year as buying sentiment cooled because local governments late last year unveiled tighter property curbs, government data showed yesterday.
The value of new homes sold across the country fell 5 percent from the same period a year earlier to 598.5 billion yuan (US$97.5 billion) between January and February, the National Bureau of Statistics said on its website.
By volume, the new home sales shed 1.2 percent year on year to 93.77 million square meters, the bureau said.
Since late last year, new austerity measures in over a dozen cities and tighter credit at commercial banks have slowed buying pace around the country over the past few months. In Shanghai, the minimum down payment for second-home buyers has been raised to 70 percent from 60 percent previously while non-locals must prove they have lived in the city for 24 of the last 36 months before buying a house. The previous rule required proof of 12-month residency in the last 24 months.
“As expected, the new tightening measures have been taking effect and sentiment in the home sales market has been weakening over the past months,” said Sky Xue, an analyst at China Real Estate Information Corp. “We are likely to see a decline in sales volume in 2014 following an extremely robust 2013.”
The government will continue to curb property speculation and regulate the housing market “differently in different cities,” Premier Li Keqiang said earlier last week when delivering the annual work report.
Investment in housing projects rose 18.4 percent on year to 542.6 billion yuan in the first two months, compared with an annual growth of 23.4 percent a year ago, the bureau said.
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