China home prices, sales slip further in January, report shows

(Reuters) - China's sales of new housing and prices for existing residential units both continued to decline in January, a leading real estate research institute said on Saturday.

The average price per square meter for existing residential properties was down just over 7% in January from a year earlier based on a survey of markets in China's top 100 cities, China Index Academy said in a monthly report.

The value of property sales by the top 100 real-estate developers was down almost 17% in January on year, the research institute said.

China's residential property market, which once accounted for a quarter of economic output at its peak in 2021, has become a major drag on the economy and a cause for concern for households, investors and Chinese policymakers.


Analysts surveyed by Reuters expect property sales and prices in China to fall further this year.



(Reporting by Kevin Krolicki; Editing by Himani Sarkar)