China’s new home sales rose at the slowest pace so far this year amid policymakers’ moves to cool the property market.
New home sales climbed 32.9 percent to 773 billion yuan (US$117 billion) last month from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics released yesterday.
The increase compares with a 63.5 percent surge in April. Home sales fell 2.6 percent last month from April.
The government is seeking to clear a glut of unsold homes in smaller cities while encouraging curbs in top economic hubs, where prices have soared amid stimulus measures and lower interest rates.
Among the cities to impose curbs were Shanghai and Shenzhen, where new-home prices in April soared 28 percent and 62 percent respectively from a year earlier. Suzhou, Nanjing and Langfang have also introduced tightening measures.
“Ample liquidity, which led the rapid gain in home sales in the first quarter, has abated,” said Chen Shen, a Shanghai-based property analyst at China Securities Co, who forecast home-sales growth to further slow this month.
Property-development investment growth, which expanded at the slowest pace in 15 years in December last year, was 7 percent in the first five months of the year. That was slower than the 7.2 percent increase in the first four months.
Developers bought 5.8 percent less land last month compared with a year earlier. New construction starts slowed, expanding 10.6 percent last month at the slowest pace this year.
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