©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A person works at a residential building construction site in Beijing, China, September 6, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s new home prices fell for a seventh straight month in January, official data showed on Friday, even as policymakers stepped up support to restore confidence in the debt-ridden sector.
New home prices fell 0.3% month-on-month after falling 0.4% in December, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Prices fell 0.7% from a year earlier, compared with a 0.4% decline in December.
China has stepped up measures to halt the housing crisis, announcing on Tuesday its biggest-ever reduction in its benchmark mortgage rate, although analysts believe its impact on house prices will be limited as holders of existing mortgages do not have any. they will benefit until next year.