Home sales in China fell during the first two months of 2014 as local government measures aimed at moderating property prices dampened buyer sentiment, media reports said.
The National Bureau of Statistics noted that home sales value dropped five percent to 598.5 billion yuan (S$123 billion) over the same period last year.
The Chinese government does not release data for individual months, but provides compounded figures throughout the year.
Jack Gong, a Hong Kong-based property analyst at Orient Finance, said: “The bad figures from the property sector are sending the government an alarm that it will somehow need to relax restrictions on the sector.”
“The economy is slowing down obviously and property is intertwined with so many other industries.”
On Thursday, Premier Li Keqiang said there is some flexibility on the country’s growth target of 7.5 percent this year, without providing details as to how much of a slowdown would be tolerated.
He also revealed that the government plans to curb housing demand among investors, with the property market regulated “differently in different cities”.
Specifically, at least 10 Chinese cities ramped up efforts to cool local property markets at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, government data shows that home sales volume dipped 1.2 percent in the January-February period to 93.8 million sqm over the same period in 2013.
Including office buildings and retail space, property sales value fell 3.7 percent to 709 billion yuan (S$146 billion) from the year before.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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