China's home prices remain stable in December

BEIJING -- Home prices in 70 major Chinese cities remained generally stable in December, official data showed Thursday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- increased 0.2 percent month on month in December, 0.4 percentage points slower than the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

In 31 second-tier cities, new home prices rose 0.3 percent in December from November, 0.6 percentage points lower than the previous month.

New home prices rose 0.6 percent in 35 third-tier cities in December from November and the growth pace was 0.3 percentage points lower than the previous month.

Prices of resold housing in first-tier cities rose 0.4 percent in December month on month, 0.2 percentage points higher than the previous month.

Prices of resold housing in second-tier cities reported a month-on-month rise of 0.1 percent, the same as that of the previous month.

Resold home prices were up 0.2 percent month on month in third-tier cities, and the growth pace was 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous month.

Kong Peng, chief statistician with the NBS, said the real estate market maintained the steady trend in December as local governments have reiterated that "housing is for living in, not for speculation," along with implementation of a long-term management mechanism for the market.