February home prices post biggest drop in 19 months

Chinese home prices fell in February by the biggest amount in 19 months as Beijing maintained strict curbs on mortgages and property purchases, Bloomberg reported, quoting data from real-estate website SouFun Holdings (SFUN.NYSE). Home prices fell by an average of 0.3% month-on-month in the 100 cities tracked by the company, with 72 of the 100 cities posting monthly declines, up from 60 cities in January. Premier Wen Jiabao and other top leaders have maintained that they will not waver on efforts to bring prices down to a reasonable level. “Home prices will continue to fall in the coming months because it’s pretty clear that the central government won’t ease the tightening soon,” said Zhao Zhenyi, a property analyst at Yuanta Securities. On an annual basis, average home price climbed 0.93% nationwide in February, the slowest pace since August, SouFun said.