House prices rebounding nationwide

More Chinese cities saw home prices rise in July compared with the previous month, as local governments began to loosen property curbs and the central bank loosened credit liquidity due to concerns over the slowing economy.

Industry watchers said the dramatic rebound in home prices that sparked panic purchases two years ago is unlikely to be repeated, as the central government reiterated that key real estate control measures such as purchasing limits will not be removed.

New home prices rose in 50 of the 70 major cities tracked by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in July month-on-month, up from 25 in June.

Home prices in each of the 50 cities increased no more than 0.7 percent in July compared with the previous month.

Chen Guoqiang, deputy director of the China Real Estate Society, told the Global Times that the main reason for the market recovery was the loosening of property curbs by local governments.

Strong demand for apartments - particularly from people looking to live in them - which has been accumulating for around two years, since the introduction of the government curbs, could also be one of the causes of the recent market recovery, said Chen.

"The central bank's loosened credit liquidity due to concerns of an economic slowdown is one cause of the slight rebound in home prices," Liu Yuan, research director at Shanghai branch of Centaline China Real Estate, told the Global Times.

Liu noted that most of the homebuyers his company has surveyed over the last three months were buying a home for the first time, and few were involved in property speculation, instead they were buying houses to live in.

The central government had also been paying particularly close attention to the recent property price rises, as well as easing policy measures such as issuing subsidies on home purchases at the local level in certain provinces, according to the final result of a State Council inspection published on its official website Friday.

The central government dispatched eight teams to investigate the implementation of property curbs in late July, prompted by a rebound in home prices in June.

The government report indicated the implementation of real estate curbs in most places appeared to be going well.

Liu said the results of inspections by the State Council indicated the central government's determination to cool down the real estate sector.

"A dramatic rebound in home prices is unlikely to occur in the coming months, as key policies like purchasing limits will not be removed in the short term," Liu noted.

Liu predicted further that curbs like property taxes will possibly be imposed later, especially as the next generation of leaders, who do not want to see dramatic fluctuations in the property market , will assume office soon.

China has implemented curbs on the real estate sector, including restricting home purchases by non-local residents in major cities and raising down payments for multiple-home buyers since 2010.