FEWER Chinese cities reported month-on-month increases in home prices in July, official data showed yesterday.

Last month, 20 out of 70 large and medium-sized cities saw month-on-month increases in new home prices, down from 31 in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, six cities witnessed higher resale home prices, down from seven in June.

In comparison with the month-earlier levels, new home prices in four first-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen — stayed flat in July for the second consecutive month.

Shenzhen, a bellwether city in the south of the country, saw prices slide 0.9% in the secondary market, trending closer to the level in June last year after COVID lockdowns halted economic activity.

In 31 second-tier cities, prices of new homes went down 0.2% from June, while new housing prices in 35 third-tier cities went down 0.3%.

Compared with July last year, new home prices in first-tier cities and second-tier cities increased 1% and 0.2%, respectively, while prices of new homes in third-tier cities decreased 1.5%.

Home prices in the second-hand market saw a year-on-year decline in July. Resale home prices in first-tier cities dipped 1.4% from a year ago, while those in second and third-tier cities dropped 2.7% and 3.5%, respectively, the data showed.              (SD-Xinhua)