BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua)
-- New home prices rose in almost
all Chinese cities in March, as
transactions soared ahead of renewed
government control measures, data from
the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS) showed on Thursday.
Of
a statistical pool of 70 major Chinese
cities, 68 saw home prices increase in
March from a month earlier, up
from 66 in February, the NBS said
in a statement on its
website.
Expectations of higher
home costs after the implementation of
government control measures contributed to
a purchase rush in March, which
prompted property developers to either
cancel discounts or hike prices, said
Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician
with the NBS.
Meanwhile, March
is traditionally a peak season for
housing sales, adding to the market
heat, Liu noted.
First-tier
cities recorded the largest monthly
increase in new home prices, with
Shanghai's 3.2-percent growth topping
the list, followed by 2.8 percent in
Shenzhen and 2.7 percent in
Beijing.
Home prices continued
to decline in China's eastern
city of Wenzhou, the only city
that saw a price decrease last
month.
On a year-on-year basis,
67 cities registered higher prices in
March, according to the statement. The
equivalent figure in February was
62.
Both Beijing and Guangzhou
logged declines of 11.2 percent, the
largest year-on-year decrease among the 70
cities.
（Editor：WangXin、Gao
Yinan）
