China's home prices remain stable in January

BEIJING - Home prices in 70 major Chinese cities largely remained stable in January, official data showed Friday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement that new housing prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- edged up 0.4 percent month-on-month in January, retreating from the 1.3-percent increase in December.

New home prices climbed 0.7 percent in 31 second-tier cities and rose 0.6 percent in 35 third-tier cities.

Compared with slightly-rising new home prices, prices of resold homes showed more signs of cooling.

Seventeen cities reported month-on-month drops in resold house prices in January, and the number has remained high for four consecutive months. The four first-tier cities also saw falling or unchanged prices for four straight months.

NBS statistician Liu Jianwei said China's home prices were stable in general last month as local authorities stuck with control policies to stabilize land and home markets and guide expectations.

On a year-on-year basis, both new and resold home price registered increases in most Chinese cities, with second and third-tier cities seeing more robust growth than bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai.