China's home prices dropped for a second month in July, a further sign of the deepening property downturn that’s weighing on the world’s second-largest economy.
New-home prices in 70 cities, excluding state-subsidised housing, fell 0.23 per cent last month from June, when they slipped 0.06 per cent, National Bureau of Statistics figures showed on Wednesday. Prices slid 0.47 per cent in the secondary market, according to the data.
The declines offer no relief to developers like Country Garden Holdings, which faces a potential default after missing bond payments this month as the housing market sputters.
Risks are also spreading to the financial sector, where a trust company with massive exposure to real estate missed payments on some investment products.
“The slowdown in the property market hasn’t been alleviated in August,” said Chen Wenjing, associate research director at China Index Holdings. “The lackluster market situation may continue in the short term, given it takes some time for local policy support to come out.”
Last month’s price decline was widespread, with 49 cities out of the 70 tracked by the government seeing new-home values drop from a month earlier, the most this year. In the existing-home market, where prices are less subject to government intervention, they fell in all but seven cities.
Shenzhen, a bellwether city in the south, saw prices slide 0.9 per cent in the secondary market, trending closer to the level in June last year after Covid-19 lockdowns halted economic activity.
Chinese developers need a turnaround in sales and prices to alleviate a multiyear credit crisis that’s showing no sign of easing. A potential default by Country Garden, formerly the country’s biggest developer by sales, threatens an even bigger fallout than defaulted peer China Evergrande Group.
The value of residential sales nationwide tumbled 43 per cent in July from June to 654.5 billion yuan ($90 billion), the weakest monthly sales in almost six years, according to Bloomberg calculations based on separate official data.
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GROUP RESULTS
Group A
Results
Ireland beat UAE by 226 runs
West Indies beat Netherlands by 54 runs
Group B
Results
Zimbabwe tied with Scotland
Nepal beat Hong Kong by five wickets
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
World Sevens Series standing after Dubai
1. South Africa
2. New Zealand
3. England
4. Fiji
5. Australia
6. Samoa
7. Kenya
8. Scotland
9. France
10. Spain
11. Argentina
12. Canada
13. Wales
14. Uganda
15. United States
16. Russia
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
At a glance
- 20,000 new jobs for Emiratis over three years
- Dh300 million set aside to train 18,000 jobseekers in new skills
- Managerial jobs in government restricted to Emiratis
- Emiratis to get priority for 160 types of job in private sector
- Portion of VAT revenues will fund more graduate programmes
- 8,000 Emirati graduates to do 6-12 month replacements in public or private sector on a Dh10,000 monthly wage - 40 per cent of which will be paid by government
