China’s housing price growth continues in Q4

BEIJING—Housing prices continued to soar in China’s major cities in the fourth quarter, official figures released on Thursday show. The average housing price in China’s 70 large- and medium-sized cities climbed 10.2 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period of 2006, two percentage points higher than in the third quarter, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement. Experts said the figures were not surprising as the growth rates in November and December had both reached 10.5 percent year on year, the largest monthly gain since July 2005. Houses have been getting more expensive despite government efforts to curb real estate investment and shelter low-income families. Prices of new apartments jumped 11.4 percent, up 2.4 percentage points from the third quarter, while second-hand units went up 9.8percent, an increase of 2.2 percentage points.—Xinhua