China housing in flux as price recovery tapers off

Shanghai

THE recovery in China's housing market that helped underpin the economy in the first half is showing signs of tapering off.

New-home prices excluding government-subsidised housing climbed in 60 cities in May, down from 65 in April, among the 70 tracked, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday.

With less of a boost from a recovering property market likely in the second half, the government will need to find other drivers such as infrastructure investment to meet its growth goal of at least 6.5 per cent this year, according to Shen Jianguang, chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd.

"The housing market is in flux," Mr Shen noted. "The government is likely to step up policies to encourage home-buying in places where demand is weak and inventories of unsol…