(A cleaner abseils down the side of a newly renovated building in central Beijing March 5, 2012. Chinese banks have begun offering preferential loan rates for first-home buyers, the official China Securities Journal said on Monday, signalling that Beijing is relaxing its grip on the property sector after a near two-year clampdown. from reuters )
Here is a look at the latest news, numbers and more from China's real estate market.
The property sector is a pillar of the Chinese economy and real estate investment accounted for 13 percent of gross domestic product last year.
In response to soaring prices, the government has used an array of measures since late 2009 to curb growth in the sector, but renewed vows by China's premier to continue those curbs have added to worries about the financial health of the country's property companies.
March 18 - Chinese home prices fell in February from January for a fifth consecutive month and are expected to continue heading south in coming months, underlining the success of Beijing's long campaign to cool property market speculation.
March 15 - China Overseas Land & Investment, the country's largest developer by market value, posted a 21.5 percent rise in full-year net profit and said it expected restrictive property policies to remain in place for some time.
March 15 - The residential property market in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has been frozen by government policy controls, SOHO China Ltd Chief Executive Zhang Xin said, warning that policy risks pose the greatest threat to the world's second largest-economy.
March 14 - China's home prices are still far from falling to a reasonable level, and efforts to curb real estate speculation must be maintained or risk chaos and a property bubble which would harm the economy if it burst, Premier Wen Jiabao said.
March 14 - Chinese property developer Agile Property Holdings Ltd said it would issue $700 million of senior notes due 2017, raising proceeds for the purchase of new land sites, refinancing and for general working capital purposes.
March 14 - China's capital could be the next major testing ground for a national property tax, putting the central government at risk of vocal criticism close to home that underscores its determination to roll out an unpopular fiscal plan that has been a decade in the making.
March 8 - Tough operating conditions and heightened refinancing risks in China's property market are pushing more developers closer to their downgrade thresholds, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said in a report.
March 2 - China's big four state-backed banks will lend more to qualified property developers to boost entry level housing supply, a statement in the central bank's newspaper on Friday said, a signal that they are ready to ratchet up real estate lending.
DATA
- China's property sales revenue fell 20.9 percent in the first two months of 2012 from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
- Chinese real estate investment rose 27.8 percent in the January-February period from a year earlier, the NBS said.
- Mortgage loans rose 1.2 percent in the first two months of 2012 from a year earlier to 129.6 billion yuan, after a negative increase in 2011 from 2010, according to data from NBS.
CHINESE PRESS
March 13 - China's efforts to link together home ownership data in 40 cities by the end of June have no technical barriers now, but are meeting heavy resistance from local officials. (The Economic Observer)
March 13 - Longfor Properties, a Chinese developer, set a sales target of 39 billion yuan for 2012, slightly up from last year's actual property sales revenue of 38.3 billion, considering government tightening stance. (China Business News)
March 12 - China's housing minister Jiang Xinwei did not see the cancellation of home purchase restrictions any time soon and said he was confident to drive down home prices in several top-tier cities. (Caijing)
March 12 - Home prices in Beijing and Shanghai has fallen 10 percent so far and will fall by another 10-20 percent in the rest of this year, said Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, a Chinese developer. (Securities Daily)
March 11 - Home price in Guangzhou has fallen 10 percent from its peak level and there is not much room for a further cut this year, said Zhang Li, co-chairman of Guangzhou R&F Properties. (Yangcheng Evening News)
THEY SAID
- "I can now tell everyone very clearly that home prices are still far above the reasonable level. Therefore, we must not relax tightening." (Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a news conference on March 14)
- "You may see that some state banks have lowered mortgage rates for first-home buyers. This is a move only to support the demand for owner-occupied homes but not a relaxation of lending curb on property sector." (Yan Qingming, assistant chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, told Reuters on March 13 on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary meeting)
SOURCE Reuters
