China’s new homes sales plunged in July from a month earlier amid a mortgage boycott on unfinished projects, a private survey revealed on Monday.
The total floor area of homes sold in 17 cities tracked by China Index Academy slumped 33% from a month earlier, with the southern city of Guangzhou plunging 48% and Beijing sinking 34%.
New home prices in 100 cities edged down 0.01% from June, when prices rose 0.04%, it said. Among the 100 cities, 47 reported a fall in new home prices, compared with 41 cities in June.
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China‘s property market, already grappling with a debt crisis among developers and weak homebuyer sentiment, has been further rocked by a mortgage boycott in recent months.
Strict rules on new borrowing have dramatically cut access to fresh capital for developers, leading to construction stoppages for hundreds of projects across China and further weighing on home values and sentiment.
Last week, China‘s top leaders in a high-level meeting of the ruling Communist Party called for efforts to stabilise property markets and ensure the delivery of homes sold by developers ahead of construction.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
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