China's home prices generally stable in July

BEIJING - Home prices in 70 major Chinese cities remained generally stable with a slight pickup in large cities in July, official data showed Thursday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- increased 0.3 percent month-on-month in July, up from the 0.2 percent increase in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in an online statement.

On a monthly basis, new home prices in 31 second-tier cities and 35 third-tier cities both climbed 0.7 percent from June.

Prices of resold housing in first-tier cities inched up 0.3 percent month-on-month in July, which remained flat in June, while those in second-tier cities reported an increase of 0.4 percent, up 0.1 percentage points from a month ago.

Resold home prices were up 0.7 percent month-on-month in third-tier cities, seeing the same pace of growth compared with the previous month.

NBS senior statistician Liu Jianwei said local governments aimed at stabilizing land prices, home prices and expectations and further implemented the long-term mechanism for real estate regulation in July to sustain the stable development of the property market.

On a yearly basis, both new and resold home prices registered increases in most Chinese cities but at an unchanged or slower pace, with second- and third-tier cities reporting more robust growth than bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Prices of new houses in four first-tier cities grew 4.3 percent in July, while those in second- and third-tier cities jumped 10.7 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.