| Videos | ? Latest |
|
? Feature | ? Sports | ? Your Videos |
Government policy eases property inflation
0 
Property prices in major Chinese cities showed mixed growth in April. More cities reported month-on-month increases in the price of new houses, and lower prices for pre-owned homes. As CCTV reporter Guan Xin reports, the government doesn't look set to change it's policies just yet.
According to the April data from the National Bureau of Statistics, new home prices declined from a month ago in 9 cities and they were stable in 5 cities.
But that means prices in the remaining 56 cities of the 70 surveyed, were higher. Although 26 cities posted smaller monthly price gains.
Looking at individual cities, prices in Beijing rose 2.8 percent in April from a year ago. That growth slowed from 4.9 percent pace in March.
In Shanghai, the annual price increase slowed to 1.3 percent last month, from a gain of 1.7 percent in March.
Officials point to the transaction volumes, that dropped significantly. They say that shows the government's tightening measures are working.
Qin Hong, Department Director of Policy Research of Ministry of Housing & Urban-Rural Dev't said "Property transaction volumes have dropped significantly, which shows the market has squeezed out parts of investment demand. The expectation of more price rises in the property market has been weakened a lot."
The government is also working on construction of affordable housing around the country. Some low and middle income earners are pinning their hopes on the affordable housing, helping to reduce some demand in the commercial property market.
Official data released last week, shows that China's property sales slowed in April. Yet with Chinese home prices are still at record levels, few analysts think the government will relax its tightening stance any time soon.
