BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Home prices in 70 major Chinese cities remained generally stable with a slight pickup in large cities in August, official data showed Tuesday.
New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- increased 0.3 percent month on month in August, the same with the increase in July, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
New home prices climbed 0.5 percent in 31 second-tier cities in August from July, and the growth rate was 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous month.
New home prices rose 0.7 percent in 35 third-tier cities in August from July and the growth pace was the same as the previous month.
Prices of resold housing in first-tier cities remained flat in August, while the growth rate was 0.3 percent month on month in July.
Prices of resold housing in second-tier cities reported a rise of 0.2 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from a month ago.
Resold home prices were up 0.8 percent month on month in third-tier cities, and the growth pace was 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous month.
NBS senior statistician Kong Peng said the real estate market continued its steady trend in August as the central government has reiterated that "house is for living in, not for speculation," calling for the implementation of a long-term management mechanism for the real estate market, while not using the real estate sector as a short-term measure to stimulate the economy.
The growth of investment in the property sector has slowed down. China's investment in property development grew 10.5 percent year on year in the first eight months of 2019, down from 10.6 percent registered in the first seven months, the NBS said Monday.
Monday's data also showed commercial housing sales in terms of floor area totaled 1.02 billion square meters from January to August, down 0.6 percent from the same period last year, narrowing from the 1.3-percent decline in the first seven months.
