By Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo
BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s new home prices in October fell the most year-on-year since 2015, official data showed on Friday, suggesting a barrage of support measures to stabilise the crisis-hit property sector has had little impact so far.
In annual terms, new home prices slid 5.9% in October, in their 16th consecutive month of declines, after a 5.8% drop in September.
However, month-on-month, new home prices were down 0.5% in their slowest decline since March, after dipping 0.7% in September, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.
The month-on-month fall in home prices narrowed in large, medium and small cities – tier-one, tier-two and tier-three cities, said NBS in its accompanying statement.
In a sign of a potential shift in sentiment, NBS said 75.9% of respondents in its poll expect new home prices to remain stable or rise in the next six months, up 17.6 percentage points from the previous poll.
Three of the 70 cities surveyed posted growth in year-on-year home prices in October, up from two cities the previous month.
China has since last year ramped up efforts to stabilise the property sector which plunged into crisis in 2021, including injecting more funds to support cash-strapped developers and lowering the borrowing cost.
On Wednesday, the finance ministry introduced new tax incentives to further lower the cost of home purchase and spur demand, in its latest efforts to revive the sector.
China cut benchmark lending rates by 25 basis points in October to boost demand.
Policymakers pledged to press for the timely delivery of pre-sold homes, a major concern for home buyers. A total of 2.85 million homes had been delivered nationwide as of Nov. 13, the housing regulator said earlier this week.
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