China's housing market remains stable in May with mild price increase

BEIJING - China continued to see a generally stable housing market in May, with home prices in 70 major cities showing mild month-on-month increases, official data showed Monday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- rose by 0.7 percent month on month in May, 0.5 percentage points higher from one month earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The country's second-tier cities saw a month-on-month increase of 0.6 percent in new home prices, up 0.1 percentage points from the previous month, while third-tier cities witnessed a month-on-month rise of 0.7 percent in new home prices, compared with a 0.6-percent increase reported in April.

Last month, prices of resold housing in first-tier cities edged up 1.1 percent month on month, unchanged from one month earlier.

In second- and third-tier cities, prices of resold housing increased by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent from the previous month, respectively.

With the continuous resumption of production and living orders, the housing demand was further unleashed in May, said Kong Peng, a senior NBS statistician.