Big China cities could see renewed spike in home prices as housing glut eases

Beijing

THERE could be a further jump in home prices in China's biggest cities since inventories of unsold homes fell sharply in July, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday, citing an industry report.

An acceleration in price rises would reverse a cooling trend seen in national data in recent months, and could force local governments to impose more cooling measures on the property market, despite the risk of quashing one of the few bright spots in the economy.

The area of unsold new homes in first-tier cities dropped 4 per cent in July from the previous month, while that in second and third-tier cities fell 0.5 and 1.2 per cent respectively, property research agency E-house China R&D Institute said in the report. Figures seemed to be more revealing on a year-on-year basis, as inventories for first and second-tier cities slipped 18 …