Day: June 17, 2024
BEIJING — China’s new home prices fell at the fastest pace in more than 9-1/2 years in May, official data showed on Monday, with the property sector struggling to find a bottom despite government efforts to rein in oversupply and support debt-laden developers.
Prices were down 0.7% in May from the previous month, marking the 11th straight month-on-month decline and steepest drop since October 2014, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.
In annual terms, new home prices were down 3.9% from a year earlier, compared with a 3.1% slide in April.
China’s indebted property sector, once a key engine of the country’s economic growth, has been hit by several crises since mid-2021, including developers defaulting on debt and stalling construction on pre-sold housing projects.
Authorities have stepped up measures to prop up the crisis-hit property sector including facilitating 300 billion yuan ($41.35 billion) to clear massive housing inventory, cutting down payments and easing mortgage rules.
But analysts believe these moves will do little to absorb the massive housing inventory, and the lifting of home purchase restrictions in major cities might further dampen buying sentiment in smaller cities.
New home prices fell last month in nearly all 70 of the cities surveyed by the NBS.
“The latest policies have boosted the second-hand home market in major cities, but the liquidity problem of real estate enterprises has not yet been eased and the confidence crisis in the new-home market has not yet been resolved,” said Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Separately, official figures on Monday also showed property investment fell 10.1% in the first five months of the year from a year earlier, after dropping 9.8% in January-April. Home sales fell at faster pace in January-May.
China’s property market is set to diverge, said Nie Wen, an economist at Shanghai Hwabao Trust, with new home sales in large cities being driven by those who have been able to renovate and sell their existing homes, while real estate in small cities is expected to continue falling due to a housing oversupply and population outflows.
Policymakers are expected to support local governments and state-owned enterprises with discounted loans to buy unsold homes for low-cost housing and at the same time cut interest rates and fees to support homeowners improve their homes, Nie said.
Alexi (Buka) Petriashvili, former Minister of State for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration in the ruling Georgian Dream government in 2012-2014, has officially joined the opposition Droa party, an ally of Girchi-More Freedom party.
“I believe that today the decisive struggle is taking place in the political arena. We must all stand together in this struggle,” Petriashvili said at the June 17 Droa-Girchi More Freedom alliance briefing of the Droa-Girchi More Freedom alliance, with the participation of Elene Khoshtaria, leader of Droa, and Zurab Japaridze, leader of Girchi-More Freedom. He stressed the importance of unity in struggle to bring Georgia back to the European and Euro-Atlantic integration course, to change the government through the October 26 elections and to carry out the necessary reforms.
Until now, Alexi Petriashvili was a Senior Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Rondeli Foundation), but as the crucial elections approach, he said he has decided to move from academic work to politics. In 2004-2009, Alexi Petriashvili served as Georgia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. He has over 25 years of diplomatic experience.
“I am very happy that a person like Buka- a fighter, principled, experienced, knowledgeable, dedicated to the European agenda, provider of very concrete results for this country, has joined our team… and what is most important, in the main struggle in which we are all together, which is bringing Georgia back to the European bosom,” said Elene Khoshtaria.
“I think that Buka’s many years of experience in the European integration work of this country is very important,” said Zurab Japaridze.
Alexi Petriashvili participated in the recent popular protests against the foreign agents law. On April 28, during one of the protests, he was detained by police on administrative charges of petty hooliganism and resisting police.
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