Home prices continue to rise in July

BEIJING - Prices of both new and existing homes continued to rise in most Chinese cities in July, according to official data released on Sunday.

Of a statistical pool of 70 major Chinese cities, 62 saw month-on-month new home price rises, down from 63 in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced.

According to the bureau, 57 cities reported month-on-month price gains in existing and second-hand homes in July compared to 55 in June, lower than the 64 rises in May.

On a year-on-year basis, new home prices rose in 69 cities last month, the same as the June figure, while 67 reported higher year-on-year prices for existing homes in July, down from 68.

Overall, home prices have been rising in most cities due to higher demand and rising land prices, a senior statistician with the NBS conformed.

But the month-on-month growth rate narrowed in July and only 12 cities reported month-on-month new-home price growth above 1 percent in July, eight less than the figure in June.

Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing saw month-on-month new-home price growth rate narrow by 0.8 percentage point, 0.3 percentage point and 0.2 percentage point respectively.

For existing home prices, 25 cities had a lower month-on-month growth rate in July and only one city reported month-on-month growth rate above 1 percent, as opposed to two in June.

The data covers the nation's large and medium-sized cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, provincial capitals, and other municipal cities.