China's new home prices fell faster at 0.4 percent last month, the largest monthly drop in nine years despite a series of policies to stabilize the market.
Developers' investment dived 9.6 percent yearly last year. It fell year-on-year at the fastest clip since at least 2000, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data.
Property sales measured by floor area fell 23 percent in December from a year earlier, data from the NBS showed yesterday.
The NBS leader said China's real estate market has shown "positive changes" and has a good foundation for long-term healthy development.
Famous mainland economist Ren Zeping predicts that a lot of Chinese developers will disappear or undergo mergers this year.
The sustained downturn in the sector that accounts for around a quarter of China's economy could stall the country's broader recovery, heaping pressure on policymakers to roll out fresh support.
"The success of 2024 will largely be driven by how effective officials are in turning the property market around," Moody's Analytics said in a note yesterday.
Authorities have already tried propping up the sector with measures, including increasing the central bank's loans to the pledged supplementary lending facility in December to help fund property and infrastructure projects.
In addition, purchase limits in first tier cities have gradually been relaxed, including by lowering the minimum down payment ratio for first and second homes.
However, these measures have failed to boost home buying sentiment, which has slumped since 2021.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect the central bank to cut the one-year loan prime rate, the benchmark lending rate, by 10 basis points in the first quarter.
Of the 70 cities in the NBS' home price data, 62 reported a fall in prices in monthly terms, up from 59 in November.
Home prices in December declined at the fastest pace in nine months, down 0.4 percent year-on-year after a 0.2 percent fall in November.
For the home resale market, prices among 70 cities all fell year-on-year for the seventh straight month in tier-one, tier-two and tier-three cities.
