China’s new home prices jumped last month by the most this year even as more Chinese cities implemented new measures to suppress rising property prices.
Prices rose 10.99 percent from a year earlier to 10,758 yuan (US$1,765) per square meter, SouFun Holdings Ltd (搜房), the nation’s biggest real-estate Web site owner, said in an e-mailed statement after a survey of 100 cities. Prices rose 0.68 percent from October, the 18th consecutive month of increases.
POLICIES TIGHTENED
At least 10 Chinese cities have tightened their property policies in the past month as local governments face pressure to meet annual home-price targets, according to Centaline Property Agency Ltd (中原地產), the nation’s biggest real-estate brokerage. Three of China’s four major cities — Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou — raised minimum down-payment requirements for second-home mortgages to 70 percent from 60 percent.
The city of Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province led gains, with prices rising 3.51 percent from October, according to Saturday’s SouFun data. The biggest decline was in Baoding, a city in Hebei Province, where prices dropped 2.94 percent.
FEWER PURCHASES
Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), Asia’s richest man, said his companies have slowed land purchases in Hong Kong and China as prices have escalated.
“Land prices in Hong Kong are high and already showing signs of an unhealthy situation,” Li said, according to a statement from Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd, his flagship developer on Thursday. “Land prices in China have surged, and we’re unable to win auctions for land.”
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