Three red lines\u201d policy scrapped<\/a><\/p>\nDeveloper funding stress continues<\/p>\n
Weak housing weighs on consumption and growth<\/p>\n
China\u2019s housing downturn deepened in January, with official data showing new home prices falling 0.4% month-on-month and 3.1% from a year earlier. The annual decline accelerated from December\u2019s 2.7% drop, marking the steepest contraction in seven months and reinforcing concerns that the sector has yet to find a durable floor.<\/p>\n
The weakness was broad-based. Of the 70 cities surveyed, 62 recorded price declines, up from 58 in the prior month. The secondary market also remained under pressure. While month-on-month declines in resale prices moderated slightly, year-on-year falls widened sharply, with tier-one city prices down 7.6% and smaller cities registering declines of more than 6%.<\/p>\n
The property sector, once a central driver of China\u2019s economic expansion, continues to weigh on household wealth and sentiment. Falling home values have constrained consumer spending at a time when policymakers are attempting to rebalance growth and offset external trade risks. Reviving domestic demand remains a core priority, but the persistent housing slump underscores the difficulty of restoring confidence.<\/p>\n
Authorities have rolled out a range of supportive measures since the crisis began in 2021, including easing home purchase restrictions, lowering down-payment requirements and cutting mortgage rates. More recently, state media reported that regulators had removed the \u201cthree red lines\u201d policy \u2014 caps on developers\u2019 leverage ratios that were introduced in 2020 and widely seen as triggering a liquidity squeeze across the industry.<\/p>\n
Despite the policy shift, funding strains remain acute. Many developers are still burdened by high debt levels and face challenges securing fresh financing. The sector is also adjusting away from the highly leveraged expansion model that powered the previous boom.<\/p>\n
With price declines broadening and annual falls intensifying, January\u2019s data suggests China\u2019s property sector remains a drag on growth and financial stability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s housing slump deepens as January prices post steepest annual drop in seven months. Earlier on this here:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,157554,219,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-281994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-china-housing-slump-persists","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}