Home-price growth continued to slow last month as signs that China’s property sector is losing momentum pile up, Caixin reports.
Prices for new homes remained unchanged in China’s top-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and grew 0.2% for existing homes, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Growth in second-tier cities also declined from September.
China’s smallest 35 third-tier cities saw a slight uptick in price growth to 1.1% from 0.9% the previous month.
Year-to-date price growth was down for all city types. For the first ten months, new-home prices grew 0.2%, down 11.7% percentage points compared with a year ago. The rate in third-tier cities was 7.3%, down 0.7 percentage points.
Smaller cities have seen a surge in price growth following a string of government-led redevelopment projects in urban shantytowns. Analysts believe that this tailwind for the property sector will be short-lived, however, as authorities pare back lending support for the initiatives.