China sees slowest home price decline in 17 months amid signs of stabilisation By Reuters

By Lianping Gao, Yukun Zhang, and Ryan Wu

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s house prices fell at the slowest pace in 17 months in November, and the crisis-hit property market is showing signs of stabilization in some major cities amid government efforts to revive the real estate sector.

New home prices fell 0.1% in November from a year earlier, the slowest decline since June last year, according to a Reuters estimate based on data from the Bureau of National Statistics on Monday.

In October, prices decreased by 0.5% compared to the previous month.

On a year-over-year basis, new home prices fell 5.7%, following a 5.9% drop in the previous month.

“The second consecutive month of improving price data is a positive signal for the real estate market to decline, and we expect a downturn to form in 2025 and the start of an L-shaped recovery,” said Lin Song, chief economist for Greater China is in a research paper.

Chinese policymakers have stepped up efforts to revive the country’s real estate sector, introducing new measures to encourage home buying after a government-led campaign to clamp down on highly leveraged developers sparked a crisis in 2021.

Measures to encourage home buying from September include cuts in mortgage rates and minimum down payments, as well as tax breaks to reduce the cost of housing transactions.

Among the 70 cities surveyed, house prices rose on a monthly basis in 17 cities, up 10 from the previous month, the data showed.

“The tipping point for housing prices in first-tier cities has been reached, but prices in many smaller cities are still falling,” said Zhang Dawei, an analyst at real estate agency Centaline.

The biggest cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have implemented tax breaks to boost demand for homes.

Home prices rose 0.6% and 0.3% month-on-month in Shanghai and Shenzhen separately last month, although they fell 0.5% in Beijing.

“Home buying is affected by income stability, demographics and real estate inventory backlogs, and more policy and time is needed to stabilize the broader real estate market,” Zhang said.

Real estate investments and sales fell by double-digits in January-November from a year earlier, official data also showed on Monday.

China’s economy has struggled this year, and since September policymakers have cut interest rates and made numerous promises to stabilize financial and property markets, boost economic growth and revive consumption.

The country’s top leadership pledged to stabilize the real estate market during a closely watched Central Economic Labor Conference on December 11-12, announcing measures including land supply controls and a plan for local governments to buy newly built unsold properties for affordable housing.