1st LD-Writethru: China's home prices remain stable in December

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's property market remained largely stable in December with home prices edging down slightly in major cities amid tough purchase restrictions, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

On a monthly basis, new residential housing prices in first-tier cities stayed unchanged in December from November, and second-hand home prices went down 0.1 percent.

In contrast, the property market in second- and third-tier cities is showing signs of picking up, with new residential housing prices gaining 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, from a month earlier, NBS data showed.

New residential home prices went down on a yearly basis in nine of the 15 major cities, considered the "hottest markets." On a month-on-month basis, new residential housing prices fell in four of the 15 cities, while Beijing, Hangzhou and Hefei saw prices flat with November.

NBS statistician Liu Jianwei said that housing prices stayed generally stable in major cities as differentiated control policies continued to take effect.

The data provide evidence that government cooling measures to prevent asset bubbles in the property market are producing the desired outcomes.

China's housing market last year had a red hot start with soaring prices in some major cities, but ended on a cool note after local governments rolled out a string of restrictive measures echoing the central government's call that housing is for living in, not for speculation.

About 110 cities and government agencies introduced more than 270 restrictions to tame the housing market, with Beijing implementing over 30 cooling policies, according to Centaline Property.

A statement released after the Central Economic Work Conference last December said that China will maintain policy consistency and continuity and adopt differentiated property policies in 2018. Enditem