China Q1 home sales down on tight credit

[SHANGHAI] China's home sales fell and new property construction declined 25 per cent in the first quarter, as credit remained tight, adding to signs of a slowdown in the world's second largest economy.

The value of homes sold fell 7.7 per cent to 1.1 trillion yuan (S$221 billion) in the three months to March from the same period a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. The last time home value sales dropped in the first quarter was in 2012. New property construction declined to 291 million square metres in the quarter.

China's broadest measure of new credit in March fell 19 per cent from a year earlier and money supply grew at the slowest pace on record, according to People's Bank of China.