HOME prices in China rose at a slower pace in June, yet continued their upward trajectory for a 13th straight month.
The average price of new residential properties in 100 mainland cities climbed 0.77 percent from May to 10,258 yuan (US$1,660) per square meter, the China Index Academy said today. The growth rate was 0.81 percent in May, 1 percent rise in April and 1.06 percent in March.
The number of cities that registered month-over-month price gains fell to 71 last month, compared with 77 in May. Of those that posted gains, 26 cities saw increases of more than 1 percent, a drop of 17 from May.
Changshu in eastern Jiangsu Province led last month's gainers with a 3.64 percent rise. Twenty-nine cities recorded price drops, with Zhanjiang in southern Guangzhou Province registering the biggest decrease, at 1.45 percent.
In the country's 10 largest cities, the average price of a new home rose 1.01 percent to 17,376 yuan per square meter in June compared with May's 1.05 percent rise.
Guangzhou continued to lead with a 2.74 percent gain, followed by Nanjing, Bejing and Shenzhen, which grew 1.69 percent, 1.59 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
Shanghai saw its home prices climb 0.58 percent from a month earlier, the academy said.
"Growing uncertainties about economic growth and concern about a liquidity squeeze encouraged real estate developers to release more of their houses for sale, which led to a slower pace in home price growth," the academy said. "However, since demand from buyers remains solid and land markets continue to pick up notable strength around the country, home prices in China are still under great pressure to head farther northward."
A separate report released by the academy today showed that the country's residential property market continued to recover in the first half of this year despite government credit tightening and other restrictions. Nine real estate developers have sales of more than 30 billion yuan in the first six months of this year, compared with six in the first half of 2012.
China Vanke Co, which sold 7.26 million square meters of property for 84.3 billion yuan between January and June, took the first spot in both value and volume.
By value, China Vanke was closely followed by Shanghai Greenland Group and Poly Real Estate Group Co, which had sales of 65.3 billion yuan and 64.8 billion yuan, respectively, during the six months. By volume, Evergrande Group and Shanghai Greenland were right behind Vanke with 7.18 million square meters and 7.14 million square meters, according to the academy.