NEW home sales in 16 Chinese cities rose for the second straight week with a surge in transactions in the biggest cities, as sentiment continued to improve after Beijing rolled out a flurry of stimulus polices and lifted harsh Covid-19 controls.

Sales in 16 selected Chinese cities, as measured by floor area, were 40.9 per cent greater during Feb 5-11 than in the previous seven days, China Index Academy, one of the country’s biggest independent real estate research firms, said on Monday (Feb 13). For Jan 29-Feb 4, weekly growth was 707.3 per cent.

Home sales in tier-one cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, rose 72 per cent last week from a week earlier. Sales in Shanghai rose 103.8 per cent week-on-week and in Beijing by 65.7 per cent.

Sentiment has been steadily recovering in recent weeks helped by the government’s aggressive support measures late last year. But analysts warn the recovery is still patchy, as confidence has not yet fully recovered, with a private survey showing falls in home prices and sales in January.

The data may also have been skewed by seasonal factors such as China’s New Year festivities that started on Jan 21.

Property industry jobs climbed after the holidays, rising 23.2 per cent in Feb 6-9 from Jan 28-31, according to a survey published by Zhaopin, one of China’s largest recruitment firms.

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“More cities are expected to optimise policies on the demand side and the market sentiment in hot cities may further recover,” said Chen Wenjing, analyst at China Index Academy.

China’s property sector, which accounts for a quarter of the economy, has been hobbled by poor demand and developers’ mounting debt defaults.

Household loan demand, mostly mortgages, picked up but lagged the jump in corporate lending, central bank data showed on Friday. Household loans rose to 257.2 billion yuan in January from 175.3 billion yuan in December, while corporate loans soared to 4.68 trillion yuan from 1.26 trillion yuan.

New home sales in 70 cities fell 37 per cent in January from a month earlier, Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institution data showed on Monday. REUTERS