The average price of a new home across 100 major cities in China rose 0.03 percent to 9,715 yuan psm (S$1,905) in December 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, said the China Index Academy (CIA).
On a monthly basis, home prices climbed 0.23 percent from November, the seventh monthly increase in a row.
In particular, the average price of new homes in Beijing rose 3.31 percent to 24,518 yuan psm (S$4,809) in December compared to the same period in 2011, while in Shanghai it was 27,034 yuan psm (S$5,302), up 0.31 percent on November, but this is down 0.65 percent year-on-year.
To keep housing affordable, the central government has introduced various cooling measures over the past two years such as higher minimum down payments, restrictions on multiple home purchases and an annual property tax on multiple and non-locally-owned properties.
While the property curbs have helped cool the once red-hot market, there is still pent-up demand. Nonetheless, the government has relaxed its monetary policy in recent months.
“Looking into 2013, the property sector is expected to continue the trend in 2012 to stabilise and recover under the conditions that the economy stabilises and recovers and the strength of current policies remains unchanged,” said the CIA.
“But a massive rebound across the board nationwide is rather unlikely as the destocking of new projects whose construction started in the past two years is far from ending.”
Additionally, many property developers held off new launches and kept home prices at stable levels in December after hitting their 2012 sales target. The government’s announcement that it will keep cooling measures in place also prevented a sharp rise.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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