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February home prices fall in China's top cities with property speculation curbs

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February home prices fall in China's top cities with property speculation curbs

New home prices in China's four biggest cities all registered a month-over-month decline in February as a series of government tightening measures continue to take effect.

Among 70 major Chinese cities, new home prices climbed in 44 cities in February, lower than the 52 cities that saw price upticks in January, according to data from the country's National Bureau of Statistics, or NBS, released March 19. Prices were down in 16 cities and unchanged in 10.

Average new home prices in the 70 major cities rose 0.2% month over month in February, compared with an increase of 0.3% in January, Reuters calculated March 19 from NBS data.

First-tier major city Shenzhen, located in southern China, recorded the biggest loss of 0.6% in February, compared to the month-ago period. Once China's most expensive housing market, the city has seen its home prices tumbling 2.5% over the past year.

In other top-tier cities, prices decreased by 0.3% month over month in Beijing, 0.2% in Shanghai and 0.4% in Guangzhou.

Since late 2016, the Chinese government has rolled out a wave of measures to clamp down on speculative activities from both homebuyers and property developers, and shows no signs of easing up on the regulations in the near term.

The cooling housing market comes as Premier Li Keqiang stressed that the Chinese government will continue to curb property speculation in bigger cities that have strong housing demand, while helping to clear unsold housing stock in smaller cities to ensure stability in the residential sector. The premier's comments were made at the National People's Congress earlier this month.

Li reiterated President Xi Jinping's housing policy that "houses are for living in, not for speculation."