China second-quarter residential land prices rise more than in first-quarter: ministry

[July 16, 2016]  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's residential land prices rose faster in the second quarter than in the previous three months, while those for industrial land posted slower growth, a report from the Ministry of Land & Resources said.

Residential land prices in 105 cities surveyed gained 1.95 percent in April-June from the previous quarter, which saw a 1.27 percent increase from October-December, according to the ministry's China Urban Land Price Dynamic Monitor.

The recovery in China's property market since late last year has been a rare bright spot in the world's second-largest economy, which has slowed amid weak demand at home and abroad, cooling investment and excess industrial capacity.

Data released on Friday, when China reported annual growth of 6.7 percent in the second quarter, showed the expansion of investment in real estate slowed in June. Property investment in January-June rose 6.1 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, compared with 7 percent in January-May.

The land ministry report, dated Friday, showed that Shanghai led growth in residential land prices in the second quarter, with a 6.87 percent gain from January-March, followed by Beijing, with a 4.48 percent increase.

The Pearl River Delta area in southeastern China recorded faster growth in overall land prices than the Yangtze River Delta region in eastern China and the Bohai Bay area of north China.

A residential area is seen in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, May 26, 2016. REUTERS/Wong Campion

"The domestic economy has held broadly steady, but the structural change is under way and downward pressure remains," the report said. "The ample funding in the property sector is leading to the moderate increases in land prices."

For the third quarter, a divergence in the property market between the biggest cities and smaller ones is expected to continue, while overall land prices should rise modestly, the ministry said.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Jenny Su; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

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