China’s urban property prices rise 9.5% in January

Property prices in 70 large- and medium-sized Chinese cities rose 9.5% year-on-year in January, the National Development and Reform Commission announced. It is the eighth consecutive month in which prices have risen after real estate stimulus measures were introduced in late 2008, Dow Jones Newswires reported. On a month-on-month basis, property prices rose 1.3% in January from December, down slightly from December’s sequential rise of 1.5%. Concerns about overheating in the property market have led the government to introduce tightening measures targeting mortgage lending and land sales from the end of last year. Nevertheless, bank lending still came in at US$203.5 billion in January, well beyond the US$55.6 billion in new loans extended in December, and Beijing is expected to maintain a reasonably loose credit policy in 2010. Prices of newly built residential real estate increased 11.3% year-on-year in January, up from 9.1% in December, while secondary market prices grew 8%, up from 6.8% in December.