New housing prices in China’s four first-tier cities increased 0.2 percent month-on-month in March,compared with a flat performance in the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Photo:cnsphoto

Stored domestic house purchasing demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic was further released in April as China has gradually contained the virus and economic and social orders have resumed, a Chinese official said on Monday.

Prices of new and second-hand homes in 70 Chinese cities reported slight growth in April compared to March, according to official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.

New home prices in 50 out of 70 surveyed Chinese cities rose on a monthly basis in April, said the NBS, noting that 38 cities reported growth in March.

Tangshan in North China's Hebei Province and Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province led the growth, both reporting 1.8 percent rises in April.

Second-hand home prices in the domestic market were up 1.1 percent month-on-month in April, with the increase expanding 0.6 percentage points over March, the official data showed.

Among first-tier cities, Beijing saw 1.1 percent growth in second-hand housing prices in the month, Shanghai reported 1.2 percent growth, Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province saw 1.7 percent growth, and Guangzhou reported flat growth.

The Chinese housing market has overall maintained stability as local governments have adhered to the policy that housing is for living rather than for speculation, noted Kong Peng, an official with the NBS.

China's housing transactions have gradually recovered from their low ebb in February, and purchase inquiries have continued to increase in recent days, Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times on Monday. 

But as home prices rebounded quickly in some cities like Shenzhen and Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, large cities should now guard against the risk of a surge in housing prices, Yan said.

Global Times