For the second month in the row, Chinese home prices have increased on a monthly basis. According to a report from cnbc.com, this is a clear indication that government efforts seeking to revitalize the housing market is gaining ground.
The report quoted Reuters indicating that prices of homes across the Mainland increased by 0.4 percent in June. This was a higher increase compared to the 0.2 percent registered in May. These two months have been the first signs of life for the housing market since April 2014.
With the growth in this sector, fears of further slowdown in the country's economy were eased as it also reported an annual growth rate of 7 percent for the second quarter of 2015.
This was also the sentiment in a similar report from the Wall Street Journal, as reported on marketwatch.com. In this report, home prices jumped by 0.16 percent between June and May. This was based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, which show the first positive numbers after a year of dismal negative growth.
The statistics released also placed the rate of growth for housing sales nationally at 12.9 percent on year or roughly RMB2.89 trillion or $466 billion worth of transactions for the first half of 2015. This is a 4.5 percent jump in volume for the year. Many analysts point to the lackluster development construction industry due to oversupply which is being lapped up by the market.
In the 70 cities that were reviewed by the Statistics Bureau, 27 cities had increased on a month to month while 33 fell. 10 cities remained the same. In a report from forexlive.com, the NBS said, "The trend of polarization is still evident among different cities." It further said that demand is high in first tier cities which declined in the smaller cities.
