Housing prices show stable performance

Both new and pre-owned home prices in China's major cities increased at a slower pace in September from a year earlier and experts expect property sector adjustments to extend into the current quarter.

Housing prices in the 70 big and medium-sized cities mainly edged lower month-on-month in September, and growth slowed from a year ago, said Sheng Guoqing, chief statistician with the National Bureau of Statistics.

New home prices in the 70 markets tracked by the National Bureau of Statistics grew 3.3 percent year-on-year in September, but dipped 0.1 percent from August.

Of the 70 cities, 27 reported growth in new home prices in September, down from 46 in August. Seven cities reported no change and 36 registered price falls.

Top-tier city new home prices were mainly unchanged from the previous month as Shanghai and Shenzhen reported an increase of 0.2 percent in transaction prices, while prices in Beijing remained steady and Guangzhou slipped 0.1 percent.

Compared to a year ago, the four benchmark cities' new home prices grew at slower paces.

The 31 second-tier cities, mostly provincial capitals, also stood flat month-on-month. Compared to last year, the growth was 4.1 percent. For the 35 third-tier cities, the two figures were down 0.2 percent and up 2.3 percent, respectively, according to the NBS.

"It's worth noting that the price fall of new home prices in month-on-month terms since May 2015 is a change we should be fully aware of, as there are risks for the housing market to turn from overheated to overcooled," said Yan Yuejin, director of Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institution.

A wait-and-see sentiment predominates in the pre-owned housing market. First-tier cities saw existing home prices retreat 0.4 percent compared with the previous month. Specifically, Shanghai reported the largest month-on-month drop of 0.6 percent in transaction prices among the four mega cities, followed by falls in Shenzhen of 0.5 percent, Guangzhou 0.4 percent and Beijing 0.2 percent.

The four cities on average witnessed a 7.7 percent growth year-on-year in their existing home prices.

Used home prices in the 31 second-tier cities declined 0.1 from a month ago while growing 3 percent year-on-year.

The 35 third-tier cities saw their existing home prices lose 0.2 percent from the previous month, despite an increase of 1.4 percent from last year.

"The 52 major Chinese cities saw their pre-owned home prices head south, indicating that a turning point in the housing price market is appearing," said Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at Centaline Property Agency Ltd.

The tight borrowing measures are regarded as the major cause for the market cool-down, Zhang said.

At the same time, the financing environment may improve slightly in the final quarter, following the People's Bank of China's reminder at a recent meeting that it would protect the healthy development of the real estate sector and homebuyers' legal rights, said James Macdonald, head and senior director of Savills China research.

China's central bank noted that the nation would maintain the healthy development of its real estate market and protect the rights and interests of consumers in a statement released after a quarterly meeting of its monetary policy committee in late September.

Experts said the central bank's position toward the property market is to enhance market confidence and stabilize market prospects.