Home prices in China rose year-on-year last month for the third consecutive month, an independent survey showed yesterday, citing strong credit growth as a key factor.
New home costs in 100 major cities jumped 2.48 percent from a year earlier to an average 9,893 yuan (US$1,589) per square meter last month, the China Index Academy said, following rises of 1.2 percent in January and 0.03 percent in December last year.
Prices rose 0.83 percent month-on-month, the ninth consecutive monthly increase, the organization said in a statement.
“The housing ministry’s support of demand for housing upgrades since late last year and the evident growth in new bank loans resulted in optimistic sentiment,” it said.
However, it said that a “tightening trend” on property policy, as some cities tightened rules on housing funds that help people buy homes and banks cut back quotas for mortgages.
Property costs are a key social issue in China, where millions of would-be buyers have been priced out of the market, fueling resentment.
The Chinese government reiterated its tough stance over the regulation of the sector last month, pledging to strictly implement earlier control measures and expand property taxes.
Possible further tightening and fewer launches of new home sales last month due to the Lunar New Year holiday kept prices in some cities from rising too fast, the academy said.
The average home price in Beijing stood at 25,290 yuan per square meter last month, up 0.86 percent month-on-month, slowing from a 2.27 percent monthly rise in January.
In Shanghai, prices averaged 28,022 yuan per square meter, up 1.33 percent month-on-month, compared with a 2.3 percent gain in January.
China has sought to control residential property prices for the past three years, with measures including restrictions on second and third home purchases, higher minimum downpayments, and taxes in some cities on multiple and non-locally-owned homes.
New properties are the most important part of China’s real estate market and the survey covers prices of both houses and apartments, including flats with prices regulated by the authorities.
The academy is owned by SouFun Holdings, China’s biggest real estate Web site operator.
Data is collected every month by on-the-spot surveys and through reports by estate agents, property developers and officials.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained