Prices for new homes in China fell in more than half of major cities last month from April, official data showed yesterday, as the Chinese government vows to maintain controls over the property market.
Out of 70 cities tracked by Chinese authorities, 43 registered sequential falls in home prices last month, the same number as in April, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
China has implemented several measures aimed at limiting runaway property prices for more than a year, including bans on buying second homes, hiking minimum down payments and introducing property taxes in certain cities.
Photo: Reuters
However, the cities that recorded rises in home prices doubled to six, including Tianjin and Dalian in the north of the country, suggesting prices have started to rebound despite controls, analysts said.
Prices were unchanged in 21 cities, the bureau added.
Beijing has been encouraging banks to lend to first-time home buyers while at the same time seeking to clamp down on speculative demand.
China cut interest rates on June 8, which analysts believe could bring new life to the market.
“The government insists that its policy controls remain in place, but they do seem to be fraying at the edges,” Capital Economics said in a research report last week.
“But neither property prices nor real estate investment are likely to experience a sharp rebound,” it added. “Prices are likely to remain subdued.”
One Chinese analyst said a slowdown in property investment had limited supply, causing prices to edge higher.
“In general, home prices will maintain a trend of stable increases in future,” Shanghai-based Shenyin Wanguo Securities (申銀萬國證券) economist Li Huiyong (李慧勇) said.
Most Shanghai-listed property developers gained in morning trade yesterday, wsaith Guangzhou Donghua Enterprise jumping 3.85 percent to 6.48 yuan and Beijing Vantone Real Estate (萬通集團) rising 1.5 percent to 4.05 yuan.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
RSS