China’s house prices rise in August defying NBS warnings

House prices in China rose in August and at a faster, defying the warnings from the chief of China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), who said the days of high price growth, are over. Mr. Sheng Laiyun cited data that showed real estate investments have slowed, in support of his comments. Annualized prices of new homes rose in 62 out of 70 large and mid-sized cities surveyed. In July prices were up in 58 cities. In monthly terms, prices rose in 64 cities compared to just 51 in July. On an average, price for new residential rose by 9.2 percent in August from a year back.

On a yearly basis, the biggest rise in price was reported in Hefei (40.3 percent), followed by Shenzhen (36.8 percent), Nanjing (36.7 percent), Shanghai (31.2 percent), and Beijing (23.5 percent). On a monthly basis, Price grew the most in Hangzhou and by 5.5 percent.

The data shows that despite warnings the price growth has been more broad-based in August, compared to last month. This should pose some cold water over the speculations that China’s housing sector is going down once more.