China's home prices up slightly in February

BEIJING - Home prices in 70 major Chinese cities edged up slightly in February, official data showed Friday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement that new house prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- edged up 0.3 percent month-on-month in February, down from the 0.4-percent increase in January.

New home prices climbed 0.7 percent in 31 second-tier cities, and rose 0.4 percent in 35 third-tier cities.

As for home prices for resold homes, prices in four first-tier cities reported a 0.1-percent growth month on month, while that in 31 second-tier cities declined 0.2 percent, widening from the 0.1-percent drop from January.

NBS senior statistician Liu Jianwei said local governments kept differentiated real estate policies in February to maintain stable and healthy development of the property market.

Compared with a year ago, new house prices in February in first-tier cities edged up 4.1 percent, while that for second-tier cities and third-tier cities rose 12 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively.

Resold home prices also registered year-on-year increases in most Chinese cities, with second and third-tier cities saw more robust growth than bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

With control measures such as purchase restrictions and tightened loans still in place, Fang Hang, an analyst of China Index Academy, a property research institution, estimated that the future real estate market will move toward a more reasonable direction and investment will grow at a slower pace.