China's monthly new home price growth slows in February

[BEIJING] China's new home prices stalled in February after eking out a small gain a month earlier, official data on Wednesday showed, pointing to still fragile demand despite a gradual easing in property curbs by authorities to boost buying sentiment.

Average new home prices in China's 70 major cities were flat at 0.00 per cent month-on-month, compared with a 0.1 per cent gain in January, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

From a year earlier, new home prices rose 2.0 per cent, the slowest pace since December 2015, and also easing from the 2.3 per cent growth in January.

China's property market slowed down last year as Beijing's deleveraging campaign triggered a liquidity crisis in some major property developers, leading to bond defaults, a plunge in share prices and projects being shelved or left unfinished.

Authorities mainly in small cities have rolled out a slew of easing steps including smaller down-payments, cuts in mortgage rates and relaxations in purchase of second homes.

The looser regulations have yet to drive a nationwide rebound. New home sales by floor area remained in negative territory in January-February, down 9.6 per cent year-on-year, official data on Tuesday showed, after their 15.64 per cent decline in December.

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At the annual meeting of parliament earlier this month, Premier Li Keqiang said China will better meet homebuyers' legitimate needs, and will implement city-specific policies.

The number of cities reporting price gains decreased to 27 from 28 in January.

Household loans, mostly mortgages, suffered a rare contraction of 336.9 billion yuan in February, compared with 843 billion yuan in January, pointing to continued weakness in the property market, according to central bank data last week. REUTERS