China property prices post first on-year rise in six months
China's urban property prices rose on year for the first time in six months in June, official data showed Friday, in a sign the sector is recovering thanks to government stimulus support.
Property prices in 70 major cities increased by 0.2 percent year-on-year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement, following a 0.6-percent fall in May.
Chinese property prices fell 0.4 percent in December from a year earlier as demand was battered by the global financial crisis. It was the first decline since the economic planning agency started publishing the figure in mid-2005.
Since October, the government has taken a series of measures, including tax breaks and preferential rates for first-home buyers, to avoid a crash in real estate, which accounts for more than 20 percent of urban fixed investments.
The property market started to stabilise in March, when prices rose 0.1 percent month-on-month, and June marked the fourth month in a row that prices increased.
In addition to favourable government policies, inflation expectations due to a surge in new bank loans this year is also driving the sector's rebound, analysts argued.
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