China Property Market Could Fall As Much As 10 Per Cent In 2014, More Next Year - Report

Tom Burroughes

31 October 2014

Jitters about potential cracks in China’s property market have been stirred by internet-based real estate firm SouFun Holdings, saying that prices in the Asian giant could fall as much as 10 per cent in 2014.

The price falls may extend into 2015, Bloomberg quoted the e-commerce property firm as saying.
“Chinese property prices are seeing an adjustment after the rapid increase in the past two years,” Vincent Mo, founder of the firm, told the news service in an interview in Singapore. “Prices should stabilize by the middle of next year,” he said.

The country has reported that its property prices fell 1.3 per cent in September, the first year-on-year fall in this closely-watched sector. China’s government tracks property trends in the country’s 70 largest cities.
International investors are keeping a close eye on the state of the real estate market in China amid fears that the country has presided over a property bubble that, when or if it ends, could impose severe strains on the state-controlled banking system.

New home prices in 69 of those cities had shown month-on-month drops in September, compared to 68 in August. Housing accounts for about 15 per cent of China’s economy.