China new home prices fall at slowest pace in 17 months in Nov

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s new home prices fell at the slowest pace in 17 months, official data showed on Monday, as the government scaled up stimulus measures to lift the crisis-hit property sector.

New home prices were down 0.1% month-on-month after a 0.5% dip in October, the slowest pace since June last year, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data.

In annual terms, new home prices fell 5.7% after a 5.9% drop the previous month.

China’s policymakers in recent months doubled down on their efforts to revive the country’s property sector, which crashed in 2021 after a government-led campaign to rein in developers’ leverage left them cash-strapped.

The country’s top leadership vowed in a meeting of the Politburo on Dec. 9 and the Central Economic Work Conference, held on Dec. 11-12, to stabilise the property market.

Recent measures aimed at encouraging homebuying included cutting mortgage rates and minimum down-payment ratios, as well as tax incentives to lower the cost of housing transactions.