China’s new home prices rose 1 percent last month, the biggest gain in two years, as developers turned optimistic as the government did not impose additional measures to curb the property market last month.
Prices climbed for an eighth month last month to 9,812 yuan (US$1,577) per square meter from December, SouFun Holdings, the country’s biggest real-estate Web site owner, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday, based on its survey of 100 cities.
Developers have supplied more high-end properties to the market since the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said in December that it would support demand from residents seeking bigger homes this year, SouFun said.
Evergrande Real Estate Group (恆大地產集團), the country’s biggest developer by sales volume, said it was targeting sales of 100 billion yuan this year, 25 percent higher than the last year.
Home prices rose 1.2 percent last month from a year ago, according to the SouFun statement.
The government has raised mortgage requirements to try to curb the property market and has imposed a property tax for the first time in Shanghai and Chongqing, and enacted home-purchase restrictions in about 40 cities.
Home prices will continue to soar as the momentum spills over from coastal to inland areas, Alan Jin, a property analyst at Mizuho Securities Asia, said in an e-mail.
A gauge tracking property shares in Shanghai rose 0.8 percent at the local close, making it the second-best performer among the five industry groups that make up the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index. The benchmark rose 1.4 percent.
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