New home prices in China rose in May, extending the uptrend for a third month with the heat spreading to more cities as developers made faster sales, a private survey showed yesterday.
New home prices in 100 cities rose 0.34 percent in May from a month earlier, quickening slightly from 0.23 percent in April, data from China Index Academy, one of the country's largest independent real estate research firms, shows.
The number of cities that reported monthly price rises picked up to 80 in May from 77 in April, with small cities in the Yangtze River Delta showing the greatest strength.
The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission yesterday said the April mortgage growth slowed to an eight-year low to 4.5 percent, and the watchdog has launched 130 cooling measures since last year.
Meanwhile, China is beginning to limit issuance of securities backed by residential mortgages, expanding efforts to rein in runaway property prices and household debt, Bloomberg reported, quoting people familiar with the matter.
The People's Bank of China is considering including such securities in its assessment of property-related loan exposure, they said.
Slowing banks' ability to issue loans to residential buyers is the latest in a series of measures to stem skyrocketing home prices.
In other news, China Evergrande (3333) said May contracted sales rose 6 percent, while Guangzhou R&F Properties (2777) saw an 8 percent increase. Evergrande had contracted sales of 63.86 billion yuan (about HK$77.62 billion) and R&F Properties 12.21 billion yuan in May.
