MNI 5 THINGS: China's Housing Prices Speed Up In June

     BEIJING (MNI) - China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released data

for 70-city housing prices on Tuesday. MNI highlights five major points:

     - The average new home price of 70 Chinese major cities, excluding

subsidized units, accelerated in June on both a monthly and yearly basis. It

grew 1.1% month-on-month, up from the 0.8% gain in May, marking the biggest

monthly rise since October 2016. The year-over-year growth was 5.8%, higher than

the 5.4% growth in May, and the highest in the last five months, MNI

calculations show. 

     - More cities saw housing price increase on a monthly basis. 63 out of the

70 cities the NBS monitored saw m/m housing prices ticking up, while four cities

saw prices falling. The net rise of 59 was the biggest in 22 months. 

     China: Residential Property Prices - No. of cities where prices are

rising/falling

No. Cities

Rising/Falling                  Jun  May  Apr  Mar  Feb  Jan  Dec  Nov  Oct  Sep

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

15-Top cities M/M         Rise   10    9    8    6    1    5    8    4    3    0

                          Fall    2    5    7    7   12    7    4    7    9   11

                           Net

                          Rise    8    4    1   -1  -11   -2    4   -3   -6  -11

70-Large and medium

Cities M/M                Rise   63   61   58   55   44   52   57   50   50   44

                          Fall    4    7   10   10   16   13    7   10   14   18

                           Net

                          Rise   59   54   48   45   28   39   50   40   36   26

15-Top cities Y/Y         Rise    8    7    5    6    5    4    6    4    5   12

                          Fall    7    8   10    9    9   11    9   11   10    3

                           Net

                          Rise    1   -1   -5   -3   -4   -7   -3   -7   -5    9

70-Large and medium

Cities Y/Y                Rise   61   62   59   60   59   59   61   59   60   67

                          Fall    9    8   10   10    9   11    9   11   10    3

                           Net

                          Rise   52   54   49   50   50   48   52   48   50   64

     - Housing price growth in the 15 top cities sped up in June. The average

price of 15 cities rose 0.9% m/m, compared with 0.5% m/m in May, marking a

20-month high, in line with the 70 cities' average price. On a yearly basis, the

index rose 0.8%, compared with an unchanged reading in the previous month,

marking the highest rise since September 2017.

     China: Residential Property Prices - Average Price Increases

Average Price Chg %       Jun  May   Apr   Mar   Feb   Jan  Dec   Nov  Oct   Sep

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

15-Top cities        M/M  0.9  0.5   0.0   0.0  -0.2   0.0  0.1   0.0  0.0  -0.2

                     Y/Y  0.8  0.0  -0.5  -0.4   0.0  -0.5  0.0  -0.2  0.3   2.1

70-Large and medium

Cities               M/M  1.1  0.8   0.6   0.4   0.2   0.3  0.5   0.4  0.3   0.2

                     Y/Y  5.8  5.4   5.3   5.5   5.8   5.4  5.8   5.5  5.7   6.5

     - Cities across all tiers saw new home prices increasing monthly. Four

tier-1 cities have taken the lead across all cities, with prices in two of them

rising and the other two unchanged. Among 31 tier-2 cities, 29 cities (or 93.5%)

saw prices rising, and 1 saw them falling. In tier-3 cities, 32 out of 35 (or

91.4%) experienced hiking housing prices. 

     - New home prices in Haikou, capital of Hainan Province, ranked first place

on a monthly basis, with the growth at 3.9%. The central government announced in

April that it would make Hainan a free trade port, which is quite bullish for

the local economy. Following that, on April 22, the Hainan government announced

house purchasing restrictions to curb property speculation. On a yearly basis,

Dandong city received the biggest gain of all cities at 15%, benefiting from its

border country - North Korea - who announced it would be opening up in April.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; tel: +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: flora.guo@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86-10-8532-5998; email: beijing@marketnews.com

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