New home sales in 70 cities fell 37% in January from a month earlier, Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institution data showed on Monday. (Reporting by Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Ellen Zhang; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
(Adds analyst' comments and recruitment)
BEIJING, Feb 13 (Reuters) - New home sales in 16 Chinese
cities rose for the second straight week with a surge in
transactions in the biggest cities, as sentiment continued to
improve after Beijing rolled out a flurry of stimulus polices
and lifted harsh COVID-19 controls.
Sales in 16 selected Chinese cities, as measured by floor
area, were 40.9% greater during Feb. 5-11 than in the previous
seven days, China Index Academy, one of the country's biggest
independent real estate research firms, said on Monday. For Jan.
29-Feb. 4, weekly growth was 707.3%.
Home sales in tier-one cities, including Shanghai and
Beijing, rose 72% last week from a week earlier. Sales in
Shanghai rose 103.8% week-on-week and in Beijing by 65.7%.
Sentiment has been steadily recovering in recent weeks
helped by the government's aggressive support measures late last
year. But analysts warn the recovery is still patchy, as
confidence has not yet fully recovered, with a private survey
showing falls in home prices and sales in January.
The data may also have been skewed by seasonal factors such
as China's Lunar New Year festivities that started on Jan. 21.
Property industry jobs climbed after the holidays, rising
23.2% in Feb. 6-9 from Jan. 28-31, according to a survey
published by Zhaopin, one of China's largest recruitment firms.
"More cities are expected to optimise policies on the demand
side and the market sentiment in hot cities may further
recover," said Chen Wenjing, analyst at China Index Academy.
China's property sector, which accounts for a quarter of the
economy, has been hobbled by poor demand and developers'
mounting debt defaults.
Household loan demand, mostly mortgages, picked up but
lagged the jump in corporate lending, central bank data showed
on Friday. Household loans rose to 257.2 billion yuan in January
from 175.3 billion yuan in December, while corporate loans
soared to 4.68 trillion yuan from 1.26 trillion yuan.
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