China's housing market heats up in April: report

BEIJING - China's housing market is showing signs of heating up amid the country's efforts in resuming normal economic activities, an industrial report said.

The search for housing increased 10.9 percent month-on-month in April, while the number of new houses for sale surged 56.2 percent from one month earlier, according to a report by online marketplace 58.com and housing information platform anjuke.com.

Home seekers seemed to regain confidence, as the confidence index stood at 102.7, up 1.8 percent month-on-month, the report showed.

Nearly half of the surveyed home buyers showed that 2020 is a good time for purchasing houses thanks to the quickened pace of work resumption and various incentives, it said.

The upturn mainly resulted from the intensive unleashing of pent-up demand, said Zhang Bo, a researcher with 58.com, noting that despite the growing appetite, the market is supposed to maintain moderate growth under the country's principle of "housing is for living in, not for speculation."