SHANGHAI - Property prices in China's major cities posted their fourth straight month-on-month rise in December, as sales also picked up pace, official data showed on Monday.
Prices in 70 major cities were up 0.3% last month from November and were 6.4% higher than a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
The month-on-month gain in November was also 0.3%. The year-on-year surge in prices peaked in April, when prices soared 12.8%, but growth has slowed in the eight months since.
Prices have nevertheless remained stubbornly high, despite a range of government measures such as hiking minimum down payments on property transactions to at least 30% in a bid to avoid a damaging price bubble.
Sales in terms of floor space rose 10.1% to 1.04 billion square metres (11.23 billion square feet) in 2010, the statement said, without specifying the monthly figure for December.
However, the full-year growth was 0.3 percentage points higher than the increase for the first 11 months, the statistics bureau said, indicating that some buyers were snapping up homes before property taxes take effect.
The finance ministry has approved a property tax plan in Chongqing in southwestern China, while Shanghai, the nation's financial hub, is likely to announce a property tax in the first quarter, state media reported.
Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said over the weekend that the city was preparing for the "trial reform on property tax as required by the central government".
Authorities have yet to release details such as the timing, tax rate, or the type of homes on which it will be levied.
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Source: AFP
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge
