Q3 land price slows for fifth successive quarter

Chinese land prices rose by 1.77% year-on-year in the third quarter to US$495 per square meter, the fifth successive quarter of a slower annual pace, Bloomberg reported. New home prices rose in less than half the cities monitored by the government. Residential land prices also inched up, gaining just 1.03% to US$730 between July and September, the Ministry of Land and Resources said in a statement on its website. Commercial land prices increased 3.2% in the third quarter to US$926 per square meter while industrial land prices rose 2% to US$106, the government said. The supply of land in China fell by 38% from the previous year to 54,300 hectares, while the land supply for residential projects also plummeted, by 35% to 11,600 hectares.