MNI 5 THINGS: China's New Home Prices Continued to Fall in Feb

By Flora Guo

     BEIJING (MNI) - The following are five things we have learnt from the

70-city housing price data released by China National Bureau of Statistics on

Monday: 

     - Average new home prices growth for 70 cities, excluding subsidised

housing rose 0.2% month-on-month in February, lower than the 0.3% growth in

January. It grew 5.8% year-over-year in February, 0.4 percentage point higher

than growth in January due to base effects. 

     - Price growth continued to cool in February, which shows the property

controls implemented by the Chinese government are taking effect and curbing

price growth. Among 70 large and medium cities, prices rose in 44 cities in

February m/m, compared with 52 in January, and fell in 16 cities last month,

compared with 13 in January. Overall, the net rise for 15 cities m/m expanded to

-11 from -2 in January. 

     Table: China Residential Property Prices - No. of Cities where Prices are

Rising/Falling

No. Cities

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

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

15-Top cities m/m    Rise    1    5    8    4    3    0    0    5    6    6    6

                     Fall   12    7    4    7    9   11   12    7    5    6    5

                      Net

                     Rise  -11   -2    4   -3   -6  -11  -12   -2    1    0    1

70-Large and

medium cities m/m    Rise   44   52   57   50   50   44   46   56   60   56   58

                     Fall   16   13    7   10   14   18   18    9    6    9    8

                      Net

                     Rise   28   39   50   40   36   26   28   47   54   47   50

15-Top cities y/y    Rise    5    4    6    4    5   12   13   15   15   15   15

                     Fall    9   11    9   11   10    3    2    0    0    0    0

                      Net

                     Rise   -4   -7   -3   -7   -5    9   11   15   15   15   15

70-Large and

medium cities y/y    Rise   59   59   61   59   60   67   68   70   70   69   69

                     Fall    9   11    9   11   10    3    2    0    0    1    1

                      Net

                     Rise   50   48   52   48   50   64   66   70   70   68   68

     - The property market cooled down in 15 hotspot cities ('top cities') that

the NBS monitored. According to MNI calculations, average price growth for 15

cities fell 0.2% on a monthly basis, its first time in negative territory since

September last year. 

     Table: China Residential Property Prices - Average Price Increases

Average

Price Chg %        Feb   Jan  Dec   Nov  Oct   Sep   Aug   Jul   Jun   May   Apr

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

15-Top

cities       M/M  -0.2   0.0  0.1   0.0  0.0  -0.2  -0.2   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.1

             Y/Y   0.0  -0.5  0.0  -0.2  0.3   2.1   6.9  11.1  13.6  16.2  19.0

70-Large

and medium

cities       M/M   0.2   0.3  0.5   0.4  0.3   0.2   0.2   0.5   0.7   0.8   0.7

             Y/Y   5.8   5.4  5.8   5.5  5.7   6.5   8.2   9.3   9.6   9.7   9.9

     Source: MNI - MNI Calculation from National Bureau of Statistics of China

     - More cities have seen a fall in home prices month-on-month - including

all four first-tier cities and 12 second- and third-tier cities. On a

year-over-year basis, it was the same case that less cities were increasing the

price with more had their price unchanged, a MNI calculation showed.

     - Cities in northeast and southwest China experienced rapid price growth in

February on a year-over-year basis, including Shenyang (+12.1%), Beihai

(+12.2%), Kunming (+11.4%), Nanchong and Harbin (both at +10.8%). On the other

hand, cities in southeast China have started on a downturn trend - Shenzhen

(-2.5%), Nanjing and Fuzhou (both at -1.5%) and Wuxi (-1.2%) are the four that

saw the largest decrease in February.

--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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