BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s new home prices fell for the third straight month in September, a traditionally peak month, official data showed on Thursday, underscoring continued sluggish demand despite government efforts to revive the crisis-hit property sector.
New home prices fell 0.2% month-on-month after a 0.3% drop in August, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data. Prices were down 0.1% from a year earlier, matching August’s decline.
China has quickened the pace of policy stimulus in recent weeks, such as relaxing borrowing rules and lifting home-purchasing curbs in some cities to arrest the property downturn.
Those policies have boosted housing demand in some major cities, but demand remains lukewarm in smaller cities with excess supply while nationwide the property sector remains in a deep slump.
(Reporting by Liangping Gao, Ella Cao and Ryan Woo. Editing by Sam Holmes)
