BEIJING, July 1 (Reuters) - Growth in China’s new home prices remained largely steady in June, with momentum slowed by government curbs on rampant borrowing and caps on prices of housing projects in some cities, a private-sector survey showed on Thursday.
New home prices in 100 cities rose 0.36% in June from a month earlier, up slightly from 0.34% growth in May, according to data from China Index Academy, one of the country’s largest independent real estate research firms.
Fewer cities reported monthly gains, with the number down to 77 in June from 80 in May, while 20 cities posted lower home prices compared with 17 in the preceding month.
In the second half of the year, some cities will likely see new home price growth soften as local authorities concerned about heated markets continue to strengthen housing loans management, CIA said.
Prices of resale homes grew 0.49% in June from the previous month, marginally slowing from May’s 0.5% increase.
Resale housing prices in the southern tech city of Shenzhen saw a bigger dip of 0.56% in June compared with May, falling for the third consecutive month as a new pricing reference system for resale home transactions cooled the market.
China implemented a raft of broad measures to rein in the red-hot property market this year, including caps on home prices set by developers.
Many banks in cities including Shanghai and Guangzhou also face tight quotas for mortgage lending as the central bank limits loans to the property sector, local media reported.
Transactions by floor area in 18 cities tracked by the institute grew at a faster pace in June compared with May, with tier-1 cities logging a 57.2% uptick and tier-3 towns seeing a 31.6% rise.
(Reporting by Liangping Gao, Lusha Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Tom Hogue)
Source: Reuters