China's May Property Prices Up 9.2%

Source : The Business Times, June 13, 2008

BEIJING - China's urban property prices rose 9.2 per cent in May from a year earlier but eased from 10.1 per cent growth in April, according to official data.

Average property prices across 70 large and medium-sized cities rose 0.1 per cent in May from the previous month, the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning agency, said in a report on its Web site on Friday.

It compiles the figures together with the National Bureau of Statistics.

Price rises in some cities remain steep. In Beijing, prices rose 12.4 per cent in May from a year earlier, while those in Urumqi, capital of the northwestern region of Xinjiang, rose by 21.7 per cent.

But in an overall view, China's urban property inflation has eased in May.

In Shenzhen, house prices rose only 2.5 per cent in May compared with a year ago - a significant slowdown from the growth rate of 14.2 per cent in May 2007. -- REUTERS