Hefty boost for China home sales

Reuters

Sales of new homes in the mainland jumped by 55.7 percent month-on-month in March as a slew of support policies boosted a pickup in demand across the board in 14 surveyed cities.

Data from the China Index Academy also showed growth was up by 31.9 percent in February.

Tier-one cities - including Beijing and Shanghai - rose the fastest, jumping 73 percent last month. Sales in tier two and tier three cities grew 54.7 percent and 28.6 percent, respectively.

The data will be welcome news for the sector, once the pillar of China's economic growth but which has been crushed by several crises since mid-2021, including developers defaulting on debts and stalled construction of presold housing projects.

Policymakers introduced a comprehensive bailout package at the end of last year to propel sales and enable project completion, which helped improve the situation and lifted market sentiment. The sector has also seen recovery in recently with prospective homebuyers looking to return after Beijing abandoned its stringent zero-Covid policy in December.

Local governments too continued to ease property curbs or roll out stimulus policies to improve buyer sentiment.

Prices of new homes in 100 Chinese cities rose at the fastest pace in nine months in March, a separate survey by the researcher showed.