A recent Reuters poll showed that sentiment on China’s property market has become more bullish as analysts expected home prices to rise 5 per cent this year, faster than previously thought. Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose by 1.4 per cent in August, beating July’s rate of 1.1 per cent. It also marked the fastest price gainin two years and the 40th straight month of price increases. Compared with a year ago, new home prices increased by 7 per cent, the fastest since August 2017 and faster than the 5.8 per cent gain in July. What is also interesting is that the price increases happened in 67 out of the 70 cities, with only Xiamen showing a decrease in property prices. China’s property market has been heating up, despite tighter curbs meant to rein in a real estate boom that has spilled over from its megacities to the hinterland for almost three years. Analysts attributes the price gains to looser credit and the delayed effect of strong government stimulus introduced earlier to reduce inventories. Chinese policymakers have rolled out a flurry of measures to support growth this year, including cutting the amount of cash that some banks must hold as reserves several times to boost lending to smaller businesses. It was also noted that tight controls in big cities have continued to push buyers into smaller markets, which tend to be less regulated. China’s four biggest cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou – posted an average monthly price gain of 0.3 per cent, compared with an increase of 0.2 per cent in July, while prices at Wuxi, a third-tier city near Shanghai in eastern China, surged by 3.4 per cent in July.
