In the first eight months of the current year, the average new house prices in 100 major cities in China amounted to RMB 15,726/square meter ($2,312.6/sq. m.), up 10.7 percent year on year, 0.3 percentage points faster than the growth recorded in the January-July period of the current year, as announced by CRIC, a real estate research institute of E-House, a Shanghai-based real estate transaction service provider.
In particular, in the January-August period this year, the average new house prices in the four first-tier cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - reached RMB 45,883/square meter ($6,747.5/sq. m.), up 6.3 percent year on year, 1.8 percentage points faster than the growth recorded in the first seven months this year, while the average new house prices in the 32 second-tier cities totaled RMB 15,460/square meter ($2,273.5/sq. m.), up 9.6 percent year on year.
Average new house prices in first-tier cities saw the smallest increase, those in the second-tier cities indicated a 9.6 percent year-on-year rise, and average new house prices in the third-tier and fourth-tier cities combined indicated a 10 percent year-on-year increase, constituting the highest increase rate.
Yan Yuejin, chief research officer of CRIC, said the year-on-year growth in the first-tier cities fluctuated within the period between 5-10 percent, signaling that the housing bubble was relatively small, especially following the regulatory policies issued in Shenzhen in July.
$1 = RMB 6.7986