China's new home prices rose for their 35th consecutive month in March, with more cities reporting growth as the government supported demand from first-time buyers and despite persistent curbs to dampen speculative demand.
Average new home prices in China's 70 major cities rose 0.4 percent in March from the previous month, up from 0.2 percent growth in February, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics or NBS on Wednesday.
On a yearly basis, new home prices increased 4.9 percent in March, slowing from February's 5.2 percent increase, partly due to a high base effect as policymakers rushed to impose a flurry of fresh tightening measures in late March last year.
The majority of the 70 cities surveyed by the NBS still reported monthly price increases for new homes. Fifty-five cities reported higher prices in March, up from February's 44.
Of the four cities in Jiangsu listed under the national monitoring scheme, Yangzhou and Xuzhou saw slight increase in new home prices while Nanjing and Wuxi witnessed slight decline.
New home prices in Nanjing in March fell in three consecutive months and witnessed the sixth consecutive month-on-month drop, down 1.7% year-on-year from the same period of last year, and a 0.2% increase from the previous month.
