Prices of new homes in China rose for the fourth consecutive month in December, a private survey showed yesterday, buoyed by a slew of government support measures.
Prices rose 0.1 percent on average after a rise of 0.05 percent in November, according to the survey by real estate research firm China Index Academy.
The property sector has stumbled from one crisis to another in recent years in a major blow to consumer and investor confidence.
Authorities have announced several measures to try to revive the housing market.
In November, Beijing and Shanghai relaxed home purchase restrictions, including lowering the minimum deposit ratio for purchases of first and second homes.
Despite policy changes, the market remains sluggish, with sales plunging 20 out of the past 24 months. Buyers remain on the sidelines, spooked by price drops, construction delays, and company defaults.
The rise comes as data from China Real Estate Information Corp showed that only 16 developers saw over 100 billion yuan (HK$110 billion) in sales last year. State-owned players Poly Property (0119) and China Overseas Land & Investment (0688) ranked No 1 and No 3, while China Vanke (2202) came in second.
Country Garden (2007) was the sixth and Longfor (0960) the eighth.
Data from the CRIC also indicated that the value of new home sales among the 100 biggest developers fell 34.6 percent from a year earlier to 451.3 billion yuan, compared with a 29.6 percent decline in November.
That puts major developers' full-year sales 16.5 percent lower than in 2022, worse than the institution's earlier estimate of a 15 percent drop.
