Home prices drop in more Chinese cities

Riders pass by newly-built apartments in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, July 29, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - China's property sector showed new signs of cooling in July, with more cities reporting month-on-month price drops, official data showed on Monday.

Out of 70 major Chinese cities, 64 saw month-on-month price declines for new homes in July, compared with 55 in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

Only two cities -- Xiamen in eastern Fujian province and Dali in southwestern Yunnan province -- saw month-on-month price gains in new home prices last month, compared with eight cities for June and 15 cities in May, the NBS data showed.

New home prices in Xiamen edged up slightly by 0.2 percent month-on-month while Dali rose by 0.1 percent.

Hangzhou, in East China's Zhejiang province, saw new home prices dropping the most of the 70 cities, down by 2.5 percent from June. Sanya, in South China's Hainan Island, dropped by 2.4 percent month-on-month.

For existing homes, 65 major Chinese cities saw price drops in July, up notably from 52 cities in June, according to the NBS. Price of existing homes in Shenyang in Northeast's Liaoning province decreased the most by 1.5 percent from June.

Only one city, Xining in Northwest China's Qinghai province, recorded a month-on-month price gain for existing homes in July, up slightly by 0.1 percent from June, the NBS said.

However, on a year-on-year basis, new home prices in 65 cities are still higher than a year ago, with only three cities seeing a price drop in July -- Hangzhou and Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province and Shaoguan in Central China's Hunan province.

The growth rates in the 65 cities moderated significantly in July, said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at the NBS.

Liu said many home buyers were taking a wait-and-see attitude due to uncertain market prospects, which led to month-on-month drops in home prices in more Chinese cities.

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