China reports falling home prices in November

BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Major Chinese cities reported falling home prices in November, official data showed on Friday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that 70 large and medium-sized cities saw month-on-month declines in both new and second-hand home prices.

In the four first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, prices of new homes edged down 0.3 percent last month, while prices of resold homes dropped 1.4 percent.

Home prices in 31 second-tier cities and 35 third-tier cities in general also went down in November from a month earlier.

On a year-on-year basis, home prices witnessed mixed performances in Chinese cities.

For new homes, first-tier and second-tier cities saw marginal price increases, but smaller cities reported drops. For resold homes, there were declines across the board.

NBS spokesperson Liu Aihua said at a press conference that some indicators have shown signs of improvement in the market due to modified policies in the property sector.

In the first 11 months, China's investment in property development dropped 9.4 percent year on year, while commercial housing sales shrank 8 percent in terms of floor area and dropped 5.2 percent in terms of value, official data showed.

These figures demonstrate that China's property sector remains in the process of adjustment, which is conducive to the stable and healthy development of the market in the long run, Liu noted.

She said the country will make active but prudent efforts to defuse risks facing the property sector and work for further improvement of the market.