China home-price increase spreads to more cities amid measures

[BEIJING] China's home-price recovery spread to more smaller cities in November, after Chinese authorities rolled out easing measures targeting regions with a surplus of unsold homes.

New-home prices increased in 33 cities among the 70 cities tracked by the government, compared with 27 in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. Prices dropped in 27 cities, compared with 33 in October, and were unchanged in 10.

China's politburo, the top decision-making body of the Communist Party, on Monday vowed to reduce home inventory as one of its key tasks in 2016. The number of unsold new homes nationwide increased 12 per cent from a year earlier as of November, the statistics bureau said Dec. 12.

Prices in November gained month-on-month in 41 cities among the 100 tracked by SouFun Holdings Ltd., which owns China's biggest property website. That was 7 fewer than in October. Average new-home prices rose 0.46 per cent in November from October, when they climbed 0.3 per cent.

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