From the MNI:
BEIJING (MNI) – Chinese house prices rose at their fastest pace in three years in June as buyers continued to pour in off the sidelines, convinced that a government crackdown on market speculation lacks bite.
Prices for new Chinese homes rose 8.81% y/y in June, according to a floor-space weighted average of prices in the 35 largest cities calculated by MNI. That marks the fastest pace since a +9.42% y/y gain in June 2010 and compares with May’s +7.84%, +6.60% in April and +4.88% in March.
On a sequential basis, prices rose for a 13th straight month in June, rising 1.01% m/m, only marginally slower than May’s +1.06% and compared with April’s +1.30% and March’s +1.45%.
In first-tier cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai, year-on-year gains remained solidly above 10%.
Prices fell in just one of the 70 cities surveyed by the National Bureau of Statistics in June on an on-year basis, versus three in May. They fell in five cities on a month-on-month basis in June versus one in May.
Another headache for Chinese economic lever pullers. You would expect further measures to clamp down on real estate speculation as a part of the move to reduce mis-allocated fixed asset investment but how that is going to boost consumption in the short term I don’t know!
