China new home prices fall less in Dec on promotions, easing curbs

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's new home prices fell more slowly in December than a month earlier, official data showed on Saturday, indicating stabilising demand driven by marginal easing on financing curbs, and promotions by property developers.

Average new home prices in China's 70 major cities declined 0.2% in December from a month earlier, slower than a 0.3% drop in November, according to Reuters calculations from data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China's property market has slowed since June 2021 as regulators stepped up their deleveraging campaign against the bloated sector, triggering defaults at some heavily indebted companies.

In December, authorities and property developers in multiple cities introduced measures to boost home sales, with local governments providing subsidies for home buyers and real estate firms offering discounts.

Monthly prices picked up in 15 of 70 cities, up from nine cities that reported price gains in November.

New home prices rose 2.6% year-on-year in December, slower than the 3.0% growth recorded in November.

In a recent note, Oxford Economics analysts said they expect central and local authorities to take steps to contain risks from defaults by property developers, such as increasing credit to the sector and tweaking the strict "three red lines" policy introduced to curb borrowing by developers.

(Reporting by Liangping Gao and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)