China’s home sales saw a strong pick up in June, with monthly transaction of residential floor area breaking through the 100 million square meters level for the first time this year to 109 million square meters, representing a monthly increase of over 30 percent. The value of homes sold also climbed 24 percent month-on-month, from RMB 503 billion in May to RMB 624.4 billion in June. The housing market in the first half of the year saw a strong growth due to a low base last year, with total home sales surging by 34 percent compared with the same period a year ago, totaling 555 million square meters.
Home sales in first-tier cities also reached the highest level this year. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen together sold over 5 million square meters of residential floor space in June, up 36 percent from the preceding month. Among which, home sales in Shanghai rose near 90 percent month-on-month to 2.47 million square meters, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the total home sales in first tier cities during the month. Beijing and Guangzhou also saw their home sales rise 18 percent and 22 percent respectively.
On the other hand, new home price appreciation has slowed down as fewer cities saw rises in new home prices in June. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, 63 out of 70 major cities across the country reported monthly gains on new home prices, compared with 65 cities in May. The growth pace also appeared to be easing. New home price in 70 cities grew an average of 0.78 percent in June, slowing down from 0.86 percent and 0.9 percent gains in May and April respectively.
With the Central Government’s efforts to cool home price, the growth paces of home prices in first-tier cities were mixed. Month-on-month growth of new home price in Beijing remained unchanged at 1.3 percent in June, while Shanghai edged up from 1.4 percent to 1.8 percent, and in Guangzhou, the growth slowed from 1.5 percent to only 1 percent in June.
