New home prices in first-tier cities rise

Home prices in the nation's major cities reported marginal growth in January, data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Monday. 

In January, new home prices of four first-tier cities edged up 0.4 percent from the previous month on average, with Shanghai and Shenzhen taking the lead by growing 0.5 percent, followed by Guangzhou of 0.3 percent, and Beijing staying unchanged.

Pre-owned home prices in the four cities grew 0.5 percent on average from December. Shenzhen took the lead by rising 0.7 percent, followed by Beijing of 0.4 percent, Guangzhou 0.3 percent and Shanghai 0.2 percent, according to NBS figures.

Compared to last year, the four top tier cities reported growth of 3.8 percent and 2.2 percent in their new and existing home prices, respectively.

The 31 tier-2 cities, mostly provincial capitals, experienced a 0.2 percent growth from the previous month in new home prices, while their pre-owned home prices stayed unchanged. 

The NBS data also indicated that the 35 tier-3 cities saw their new home prices and used home prices rise 0.4 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively, from the previous month.

"Both new and pre-owned home prices in second-tier cities reported a downward growth rate on an annual basis over the past nine months; while new home prices of third-tier cities stayed unchanged, and growth of their used home prices has been narrowing for 10 consecutive months," said Kong Peng, a chief statistician with the NBS.