Housing prices remain divergent

Home prices remained divergent in China during December, with some of the first-tier cities recording price drops, while second and third-tier cities saw increases due to the varied market policies, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

Newly built commercial housing prices in the first-tier cities - namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - remained stable in December, while those in second and third-tier cities rose by 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent respectively from November 2017.

The same trend was witnessed in second-hand home prices, which dropped slightly by 0.1 percent in first-tier cities and rose 0.3 percent in both second and third-tier cities in December, said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at the NBS.