THE country’s property prices may slip in the second half of 2017 if the overall economic growth rate keeps sliding, a prominent government think tank said late Thursday.

    “If macroeconomic growth continues to slide, property prices may once again fall overall in the second half of 2017,” the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said in its “blue book” report on China’s property market.

    Housing prices in first-tier cities and some second-tier cities have risen this year, CASS said, attributing this to active fiscal policy and relatively loose monetary policy. But it said the risk of a property bubble forming has increased in parts of the market.

    Despite attempts to destock property supplies in third- and fourth-tier cities, no significant breakthroughs have been made, the report said.

    While property prices in top-tier Chinese cities are booming, prices in smaller cities, where most of the urban population lives, are still weakening, complicating government efforts to spread wealth more evenly and arrest slowing growth.

    (SD-Agencies)