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.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six