Housing prices seen inching up

Housing prices in large cities continued to rise slightly in November despite the government's continued curbing policy, according to a report released Monday.

It puts policymakers in an awkward situation given that tougher policies could jeopardize the country's fragile economic growth, analysts said.

The average price of newly built residential houses in 100 major cities was 8,791 yuan ($1,406) per square meter in November, up 0.26 percent from October, according to a report released Monday by China Index Academy under soufun.com, China's largest online real estate portal.

House prices stopped falling and started to rise slightly month-on-month since June, He Tian, a research director with China Index Academy, told the Global Times Monday. The 10 major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, also saw growth in prices of 0.15 percent year-on-year in November, He noted.

According to official statistics, more cities saw a rise in house prices in October than in September, despite the curbing policy for the housing sector.

Large property developers such as China Merchants Property Management and Poly Group reportedly all achieved their full-year 2012 sales targets in the first nine or 10 months.

The recovering housing market has increased the tax revenues of local governments, and contributed to the stable performance of the economy, said Gu Yunchang, vice president of the China Real Estate and Housing Research Association.

Gu told the Global Times that tougher policies to curb housing prices would put pressure on the economy.

A recent notice posted by Finance Minister Xie Xuren on the ministry's website calling for property tax reform sparked market speculation that the property tax will be rolled out in more cities, following pilot projects in Chongqing and Shanghai.

It is most likely that the property tax will spread to more cities after the second quarter of 2013, by which time policymakers will be able to tell from economic data whether the economy has stabilized, said He of China Index Academy.