Home prices grow for 19th straight month

Home prices continued to grow for the 19th straight month in China in December, with more than two thirds of the monitored cities recording monthly gains.

The average price of new homes in 100 cities across the country last month rose 0.7 percent from November to 10,833 yuan (US$1,785) per square meter, the China Index Academy said on Wednesday.

In November prices added 0.68 percent and rose 1.24 percent in October.

"While the pace of growth remained little changed from a month earlier, the number of cities registering price gains fell in December and those whose prices grew over 1 percent also declined, indicating a stable market," the academy said.

Nationwide, prices in 68 cities grew monthly, down from 69 in November and 75 in October. Of the 68 cities, 19 recorded growth of above 1 percent, compared to 28 in November. Xiangtan in Hunan Province led last month's gainers with a 3.49 percent rise.

In the 10 largest cities, the average price of a new home gained 1.31 percent to 18,994 yuan per square meter, compared to a monthly growth of 1.16 percent in November. Nanjing in Jiangsu Province saw the biggest rise among the largest cities with a monthly gain of 2.62 percent, followed by a 2.38 percent growth in Guangzhou and a 2.34 percent increase in Shanghai, the academy said.

Meanwhile, Shanghai's new home purchases fell below the 1-million-square-meter mark for the first time in four months in December, with the average price at a record, said a latest report released by Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co.

The sales of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, fell 23.5 percent from November to 983,700 square meters. They were sold for an average 25,361 yuan per square meter, a monthly rise of 0.64 percent, Uwin data showed.

Some 812,200 square meters of new homes were released in the city last month, the fewest monthly volume since August, according to the data, as real estate developers did not want to trigger sales during the year-end following robust sales registered in previous months, according to Huang Zhijian, Uwin's chief analyst.