China home prices fall in March

New-home prices in China’s major cities fell year-on-year in March for the first time since Beijing enacted measures to curb the market two years ago, The Wall Street Journal reported. Prices fell in 38 of the 70 surveyed cities in March, down 0.4% on average from a year earlier, according to WSJ calculations based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics. However, price property movements were still uneven; new-home prices rose month-on-month in eight of the 70 cities, including Chongqing and Harbin. Analysts said that buying appetite seems to be reappearing and restraining home prices in the coming months might be a challenge. That could encourage the central government to continue or even intensify the restrictions, analysts said. “The authorities want property prices to fall to a ‘reasonable level,’ by which we infer at least a 10% year-on-year fall, before they scale back the April 2010 tightening measures,” said ING economist Prakash Sakpal.