Costs of housing in Haikou and Sanya up 21.6% and 19.1% in 2010
The cost of new homes, excluding affordable housing, rose more than 10 percent year on year in 10 cities out of 70 monitored across China, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
Prices rose the most, or 22 percent, in Yueyang in central China's Hunan Province, immediately followed by Haikou and Sanya in the southernmost Hainan Province, up 21.6 and 19.1 percent, according to the bureau.
Shanghai saw prices rise 1.8 percent year on year while Beijing's new homes rose 9.1 percent.
Only two cities – Quanzhou in Fujian Province and Nanchong in Sichuan Province – showed no increases in a list compiled by the bureau using a new statistical method.
From this year, the country's top statistics agency is collecting data registered with local housing watchdogs instead of figures submitted by developers and industry associations.
On a month-on-month basis, 60 cities out of the 70 gained with three of them rising by more than 3 percent.
Three cities, including Chongqing, where a trial property tax was announced before the Spring Festival holiday, suffered drops and the rest remained flat.
On a year-on-year basis, however, Chongqing prices saw a rise of 8.1 percent.
New home prices in Shanghai stood at 22,992 yuan (US$3,494) per square meter in the city last month, according to an earlier report released by Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co.
That compared to 20,682 yuan per square meter registered in January 2010.
"With the adoption of a new method, the figures, to some extent, may better reflect the real situation compared to previous ones," said Sky Xue, an analyst with China Real Estate Information Corp, a leading real estate information, consulting and online services provider in the country. "But it is always the case that statistical results are quite different from what ordinary people would perceive from their own experiences."
As for existing home prices, 65 of the 70 cities secured year-on-year gains last month with six climbing by more than 10 percent. The rest dropped.
Month on month, 60 of them saw rises from December with five cities recording increases over 2 percent. Seven cities remained unchanged while the rest fell, the bureau said.
The prices for existing homes in Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province jumped 18.5 percent from a year earlier, the highest rise in the country.
It was trailed by Lanzhou, capital of the northwestern Gansu Province, at 16 percent, and Sanya, at 14.8 percent.
From this month, only separate data will be published for the 70 cities and no average price index for the 70 will be issued, the bureau said.
Also, only residential properties will be monitored from now on and not commercial properties, which were tracked previously, the bureau said earlier this week.
SOURCE: Shanghai Daily
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