CRI听力:Home Prices Continue to Fall in June

Official data shows that China's home prices continued a downward trend in more cities in June, pointing to a sluggish property market that is complicating the broader economy as growth falters.
The National Bureau of Statistics says new home prices in 55 of a sample of 70 major cities showed month-on-month drops in June, compared with 35 in May.

Only eight cities, including Beijing, saw month-on-month gains, down from 15 in May.

Data showed the average home price in these 70 cities slipped half a percent from the previous month, marking a second consecutive monthly drop following a 0.2 percent fall in May.

Fifty-two cities saw price drops for existing homes in June.

However, on a year-on-year basis, new home prices in most cities are still higher than a year ago, with only Wenzhou City seeing a price drop in June.

The data added to signs that the property market is experiencing what analysts called an "adjustment period" after torrid growth in previous years.

NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun talks about the adjustment.

"In the first six months of this year, the floor space of sold housing dropped by 6 percent and the sales of the housing market dropped 6.7 percent. And the prices in different regions of China saw a bifurcation. For example, tier 2 and tier 3 cities saw a momentum of downward adjustment."

Many local governments have started to adjust policies to boost sales.

Last week, the eastern city of Jinan became the latest region to lift home purchase restrictions. So far, around 20 regions have lifted or eased restrictions on home purchases.

But NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun believes the adjustment period of the housing market is not a bad thing.

In the short term, such bifurcation and adjustment will create some pressure on the overall economy, however, in the long term, such adjustment is conducive to the healthy growth of the housing market and will benefit the overall economy.

China's growth accelerated to 7.5 percent in the second quarter of 2014 after dipping to 7.4 percent in the first quarter.