Econintersect: Last year money was made more easily obtainable for residential property loans as China made an effort to curtail the rate at which economic growth was slowing. Simon Rabinovitch reports in the Financial Times that in “recent days” several cities have increased requirements and put cap limits on the size of loans. Home sales have been increasing in recent months and house prices have been rising for eight months. Rabinovitch says that last week during the Chinese New Year’s celebration home sales exploded six-fold. Click on picture for larger image.
Three cities were cited by Rabinovitch: Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong. Another report from China.org.cn states that there is also a boom in Shenzhen which borders Hing Kong. Last week they reported:
Real estate developers in Shenzhen sold out 568,500 square meters of new commercial housing, up 32.1 percent from a month earlier and up 369.3 percent from a year earlier, the municipal commission of urban planning, land and resources said Monday.
This was the strongest sales in 43 months, the agency said in a statement.
The strong demand drove the average price of new homes up 8.4 percent month on month to 19,694 yuan (3,160 U.S. dollars) per square meter, it added.
In addition, the sales of existing homes reached 672,000 square meters in January, up 21.8 percent from a month ago and 601.6 percent from a year ago.
Reporting on home sales for 42 cities at the end of January, China Confidential said sales remained weak, but had fallen much less than usual on a seasonal basis this winter. Then just one week later the same source reported that January was unusually strong for home sales across the 42-city sample. Sales increased by “triple digits” in January, year-over-year.
South China Morning Post also reported in early February that housing prices for January in Beijing were rising rapidly and pushing housing out of the reach of some buyers. Apartment prices were reported up by 2.3% month-over-month and 5.9% year-over-year.
Sources:
- Chinese cities curb property loans (Simon Rabinovitch, Financial Times, 19 February 2013)
- Shenzhen home sales surge in January (China.org.cn, 11 February 2013)
- Chinese home sales remain below recent highs (China Confidential, 29 January 2013)
- January home sales surprise on the upside (China Confidential, 05 February 2013)
- Beijing property prices rising sharply beyond reach of some buyers (Celine Sun and Peggy Sito, South China Morning Post, 06 February 2013)