Transitioning toward stable growth, quality

The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics indicated home prices in China's 70 large and medium-sized cities remained largely stable month-on-month in June, with more cities reporting home price growth from a month ago.

"We are now at the end of the tunnel, and for the rest of the year, we can see the sector achieving stability," said Hui, citing the property development investment trend over the last six months.

China's investment in property development went down 5.4 percent year-on-year to 6.83 trillion yuan ($1.01 trillion) in the first half of this year, with 5.18 trillion yuan invested in residential buildings alone, down 4.5 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.

Commercial housing sales in terms of floor area totaled 689.23 million square meters in the January-June period, down 22.2 percent year-on-year. In terms of value, sales dropped 28.9 percent to 6.61 trillion yuan.

The property development climate index compiled by the NBS stood at 95.4 points in June. According to the China Index Academy's calculation, in the new homes market, an average 30.99 million square meters per month were traded between January and June in the nation's 100 major cities, down 42 percent year-on-year, indicating a sluggish sentiment among homebuyers, a contrast to the scene in the same period of the past few years.

To brighten the market mood, the central government and related government departments have sent a series of positive signals so as to better meet the reasonable housing demand of homebuyers while sticking to the principle that "housing is for living in, not for speculation".

China's financial regulators said they will support the regular demand of homebuyers. The People's Bank of China, the central bank, and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission announced jointly in May that based on the corresponding tenor of benchmark loan prime rates, first-time homebuyers can receive interest rates 20 basis points below the lower limit of home loans from commercial banks, while that for second-home purchases will remain unchanged.

This not only cut the cost of home purchases but also helped boost rational demand and city-based home market policies, said industry analysts.

In the first half, local governments launched policies to suit conditions prevailing in local markets. Local-level measures were optimized about 500 times－a new record in terms of policy announcements made during the period, said Chen Wenjing, deputy director of research with the China Index Academy.

The measures to encourage rational demand coincided with mostly successful contagion containment steps, thus aiding realty recovery in key cities since May, she said.

June proved more encouraging as the recovery accelerated, which further shored up homebuying confidence and strengthened demand, said Wang Xiaoqiang, chief analyst with the Zhuge Real Estate Data Research Center, adding the recovery will further accelerate this month and in August.

Fang Ting, 26, a human resources executive at a private firm, and her boyfriend are among the beneficiaries of recent supportive policies. After sharing an apartment with others for three years, they finally moved into their own flat in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province in eastern China.

Like most homebuyers in the 20-30 age group, Fang and her boyfriend did not have a big budget, so they settled for a pre-owned three-bedroom flat located close to a suburban metro station.

"The apartment meets all of our basic needs; in addition, the previous homeowner gives us 100,000 yuan price cut as he urgently needed the money to do his own business," Fang said.