China's home prices continue to rise

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

Of a statistical pool of 70 major Chinese cities, 63 saw month-on-month home price rises. However, the number was down from 65 cities that reported higher prices in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement on its website.

Commodity houses in Changsha, Central China's Hunan province, July 17, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

According to the NBS, 55 cities reported month-on-month price gains in existing homes in June compared to the previous month. The figure also dropped from 64 cities that saw price rises in May, the data showed.

Compared to May, five cities, including Guiyang and Urumqi, saw new home price declines last month. Eight cities, including Harbin and Lanzhou, reported price drops in existing homes. However, the price declines were unanimously limited, the data showed.

On a year-on-year basis, new home prices rose in 69 cities last month, while 68 cities reported price increases of existing homes.

The data has covered the nation's large and medium-sized cities, including megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai, provincial capitals, and other municipal cities.

In the nation's first-tier cities, home prices all witnessed rises last month both on a monthly and yearly basis, according to the data.

However, Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician with the NBS, said that around half the cities saw new home price increases narrow in June from a month ago. Guangzhou and Shenzhen saw price gains narrow by 0.5 and 0.2 percentage point, respectively.

The nation's second and third-tier cities, such as Guilin and Baotou, saw new home price increases narrow by 1.3 and 1.2 percentage points, respectively, Liu said.