Beijing (Reuters) – A private survey released on Friday showed that the prices of new homes in China went up a little faster in June than they did in May. This was because many small and medium-sized cities took steps to make policies more flexible in order to boost demand.
China Index Academy, one of the country’s largest independent real estate research firms, did a survey and found that the prices of new homes in 100 cities rose by 0.04 percent, which is a bit more than the 0.03 percent gain in May.
In recent weeks, there have been some signs that China’s depressed real estate market is improving. This year, most of the stimulus measures have been aimed at helping people buy homes. These measures include subsidies, smaller down payments, and less strict rules about buying homes.
China Vanke Co., a major homebuilder, said this week that the property market has hit bottom in the short term. This is based on a clear rise in sales from May to June, which was partly caused by pent-up demand after months of COVID-19 restrictions. Chairman Yu Liang, on the other hand, has warned that the economy will improve gradually.
The research company looked at 100 cities and found that prices went up in 47 of them from one month to the next. In May, prices went up in more than 40 cities.
Prices went up 0.14 percent in the tier-two cities, which include provincial capitals. This was a faster increase than the 0.07 percent increase in May.At 0.68 percent, Xian, the capital of the province of Shaanxi in the northwest, had the most growth.
The Academy said, “Local governments are likely to continue implementing city-specific policies,” such as better terms for households with more than one child.
“The real estate market is likely to get better in the second half of the year, when COVID-19 curbs will be loosened and stimulus measures will be put in place.”