BEIJING- China’s new home prices rose for the first time since September on a monthly basis, official data for January showed on Monday, as efforts to soften the blow from tough regulatory curbs on property supported buyer sentiment, particularly in big cities.
Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities climbed 0.1 percent from a month earlier in January, compared with a 0.2 percent drop in December, according to Reuters calculations from data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
China’s property market, accounting for a quarter of gross domestic product by some metrics, has slowed due to Beijing’s push to cut leverage in the sector amid defaults at heavily-indebted players such as China Evergrande Group.
To ease the pain for developers, authorities have taken a slew of measures since late 2021, including giving real estate firms easier access to funds from escrowed accounts.
