Home prices in some big Chinese cities show signs of stabilisation: statistics bureau

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In November, new home prices in China’s four top-tier cities were unchanged from a month earlier, following 13 months of declines

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Workers install windows at a residential project in Shanghai. Photo: Reuters

Cao Li

Published: 1:06pm, 16 Dec 2024Updated: 3:06pm, 16 Dec 2024

Home prices in some of China’s largest cities are showing signs of stabilisation, the statistics bureau said on Monday.

In November, new home prices in China’s four top-tier cities were unchanged from a month earlier, following 13 straight months of declines. And secondary home prices in these cities fell by 0.1 per cent, a smaller decline than in October.

Potential buyers who could not afford housing in big cities during the property boom have entered the market as prices have fallen, according to Li Yujia, chief researcher with the Guangdong Housing Policy Research Center, a government-linked think tank.

“That has resulted in more active transitions, which is the reason new home prices in first-tier cities have stopped falling,” he said.

Just over three years after China Evergrande defaulted on its debts, triggering the nation’s property slump, Beijing has rolled out a number of incentives to encourage home purchases. In November, local governments across the country loosened restrictions or offered incentives in 61 policy measures, from lowering transaction taxes to subsidising purchases, according to China Real Estate Association, a trade group.

After that, transactions in top-tier cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen surged. In Shenzhen, 2,390 second-hand homes changed owners in the first week of December, the highest level in over three years, according to data compiled by the Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association.