Prices of both new and existing homes continued to rise in most Chinese cities in June, according to official data released on Thursday.
Of a 70-city statistical pool, 63 Chinese cities saw month-on-month home price rises, whereas the number was down from 65 cities that reported higher prices in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement on its website.
According to the NBS, 55 cities reported month-on-month price gains in existing homes in June compared to the previous month. The figure also dropped from 64 cities that saw price rises in May.
The data was in line with market expectations that the trend of price rises would be sustained even though the amount of increases would be tempered.
Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician with the NBS, said that around half the cities saw narrower new home price increases in June from a month ago.
The nation's second and third-tier cities, such as Guilin and Baotou, saw new home price increases narrow by 1.3 and 1.2 percentage points, respectively, Liu said.
The tempered tone in analyzing the June data met criticism online, with many complaining home prices had still increased across a broad range and the current prices remained unaffordable for common people.
In first-tier cities, home prices all witnessed sharp rises last month both on a monthly and yearly basis.
Property prices started to rebound in the second half of 2012. Runaway prices led the government to issue a guideline in March to tighten control on the real estate sector, including higher transaction taxes, restrictions on purchases of multiple homes, and higher down payments.
However, that guideline failed to stop the upsurge of property prices.
Source Xinhua
