Xiamen defies house price trend in August

Only one of the 70 major cities in China saw a decline in its housing price month-on-month in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, with experts predicting that the authorities would introduce further curbs to rein in price rises.

The price of newly built commercial property in Xiamen dropped by an average of 0.1 percent compared to July, while the market in Beijing remained stable with the average price unchanged from the previous month.

According to the NBS, the average price of new property rose in Shanghai by 0.1 percent and increased by 0.9 percent in Guangzhou in August.

Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at the NBS, said local governments had continuously carried out measures to control the housing price and sought to create a healthy and stable market.

"The price of newly built commercial residential properties in the four first-tier cities increased by 0.3 percent from the previous month, and the growth rate increased slightly by 0.1 percentage point," he said.

"The average price from January to August has shown a 0.1 percent yearly decrease, while in the same period last year the average price has soared by 14.6 percent."

In 35 second and third-tier cities, new property prices rose by an average of 2 percent compared to last month, with the growth rate rising 0.5 percentage point from July, he said.

Liu said new property has become more expensive in 12 cities from July, and Wuxi has seen the highest growth of 3.4 percent.

Yan Yuejin, research director with the E-house China R&D Institute, predicted the property market will continue to heat up as a growing number of cities showed no sign of cooling down in August.

"The data in August indicated there will be relative strong drive for prices to rise in the following months in 2018, and such a trend will encourage local authorities to push forward with more curbs," he said.

Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at Centaline Property Agency Ltd, also predicted that house prices will remain at a high level until October.

Xie Yifeng, president of the Realty Association of Asia-Pacific Cities, showed a more negative view toward the possibility of a price drop in the near future, but he also predicted tightening policies and regulation will be stepped up.

"A number of cities have announced new policies to attract professionals to settle down, which stimulated demand," he said. "Also some cities have adopted policies to block people from buying houses, making them rush to buy in case they won't be able to do so in the future."

"Also, demand for newly established property has exceeded supply, adding extra heat to the market," he said.