China home-price growth quickens in Feb; gains spread to smaller cities

Beijing

CHINA'S red-hot property market picked up pace in February after pulling back for four months, with average new home prices in the country's 70 major cities rising slightly in spite of a raft of new government curbs aimed at tempering speculative demand.

Compared with a month earlier, new home prices rose 0.3 per cent, quickening from January's 0.2 per cent increase, according to Reuters calculations from data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday. The monthly gain in price growth suggested speculation has yet to be contained even with more local governments rolling out restrictive measures amid fears that a furious rally over the past year could trigger a crash.