BEIJING |
BEIJING (Reuters) - Average home prices in 100 key Chinese cities fell in May for the ninth straight month, a private sector survey showed on Friday, reinforcing the message that Beijing's campaign to curb property speculation remains locked in place.
The average price of 8,684 yuan ($1,376) per square meter in the 100 cities surveyed was 0.31 percent lower than April, said the China Real Estate Index System (CREIS), a consultancy affiliated with China's largest online real estate company, Soufun Holdings (SFUN.N).
Average prices were 1.53 percent lower than May 2011, marking the second year-on-year fall since June 2011 when CREIS first began calculating the year-on-year change.
The property price drop coincides with signs of a broadening economic slowdown as surveys of China's vast factory sector showed momentum eased in May, signaling a deeper-than-forecast deterioration in demand at home and abroad and the likelihood of more monetary and fiscal policy easing.
The private sector survey showed that home prices fell in all of China's top 10 cities at an average of 0.5 percent from April and they also declined 3.2 percent from the same period last year, making the fifth monthly decline in a row.
The CREIS data comes ahead of official figures on home prices in 70 major cities from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), due on May 18. NBS numbers for April fell for a second month in a row compared with year ago levels.
China started its property tightening campaign, aimed mainly at curbing multiple home purchases, towards the end of 2009, after a surge in prices that put home ownership out of reach for many in China's burgeoning middle class.
Prices had been inflated in large part by a 4 trillion yuan ($635 billion) government stimulus package aimed at steering the economy past the effects of the global financial crisis.
Premier Wen Jiabao has since vowed repeatedly to drive home prices back to a reasonable - albeit undefined - level, aiming to ensure social stability during this year's once-in-a-decade reshuffle of the Communist Party's top leadership.
($1 = 6.3102 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting By Xiaoyi Shao and Nick Edwards; Editing by Ed Lane)
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