2010-08-13 10:35

BEIJING - Urban residents who expect home prices to fall in first-tier Chinese cities in the second quarter outnumber those who anticipate further price hikes, according to a report by the China Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center released here Thursday.

About 41 percent of those surveyed in the second quarter expected house prices to fall in popular first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- 18 percentage points higher than the proportion in the first quarter, according to the center which is under the National Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, only 36 percent of those surveyed in the second quarter anticipated house prices to continue to rise in those first-tier cities -- 24 basis points lower than the first quarter.

In the second quarter, more people are expecting house prices to decline in cities at various levels, even as the proportions vary in different cities, according to the report.

About 30 percent of consumers in provincial capital cities anticipated home prices to weaken in the second quarter, compared with 15 percent in the first quarter.

In other small- and medium-sized cities, 28 percent of consumers surveyed foresaw house price falling in the future, up more than 11 basis points from the first quarter.

"The result show government measures to tighten the housing market since mid April have begun to have an effect on urban consumers' expectations," said Pan Jiancheng, deputy director of the China Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center.

In spite of the rising proportions, the number of those who anticipated house price declines, however, still fell short of those who expected further price hikes in cities, except for consumers in the first-tier cities, according to the report.

Housing prices in major Chinese cities rose 10.3 percent year-on-year in July, compared with 11.4 percent growth in June, according to NBS data released Tuesday.

Property prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities grew 12.4 percent in May and 12.8 percent in April, the highest growth rate since July 2005 when the government started publishing the data.