China News Service, Beijing, February 1 (Reporter Pang Wuji) In the first month of 2025, housing prices in major cities in China remained on the recovery trend.

Data released by the China Index Academy on February 1 showed that in January 2025, the average price of newly built residential buildings in 100 cities in China was 16,693 yuan per square meter (RMB, the same below), up 0.23% month-on-month; up 2.76% year-on-year. In that month, the average price of second-hand housing in 100 cities in China was 14,130 yuan per square meter, a month-on-month decrease of 0.51%, a decrease of 0.02 percentage points from December 2024; a year-on-year decrease of 7.22%.

From the perspective of new residential prices, driven by the entry of high-quality improvement projects in some cities, the prices of new residential buildings in 100 cities continued to rise slightly on a structural basis on a month-on-month basis. At the same time, under the influence of the Spring Festival holiday, the transaction volume of new homes in January fell seasonally. From the perspective of the second-hand housing market, the year-on-year growth rate of second-hand housing transactions in core cities has narrowed, and the trend of "price for volume" has not changed. The overall price of second-hand housing in 100 cities has still declined month-on-month.

In January, the prices of new houses in first- and second-tier cities both rose on the same month-on-month basis. According to data from the China Index, the prices of newly built residential buildings in first-tier cities rose by 0.36% month-on-month and 6.01% year-on-year; second-tier cities rose by 0.26% month-on-month and 1.93% year-on-year; third- and fourth-tier cities rose by 0.01% month-on-month and 0.14% year-on-year.

In recent times, various parts of China have been intensively optimizing real estate-related policies. Among them, Zhenjiang and Yueyang canceled price limits; Nanning, Kaifeng and other places issued announcements on state-owned enterprises to purchase commercial housing as affordable housing; Kunming promoted pricing based on the area of ​​the housing.

China Index Research Institute analyzed that the housing market policy environment is expected to remain loose in 2025, and localities will continue to optimize housing market policies in terms of promoting demand and optimizing supply. The institution expects that the market online signing volume will rebound certainly after the Spring Festival. At the same time, since the transaction scale of new houses in the first quarter of last year was a relatively low level in recent years, under the low base, the sales volume of new houses may remain stable year-on-year; due to the gradual adjustment of prices in some communities and the improvement of expectations of owners in core cities, the transaction volume is expected to maintain a certain scale. This year, if all real estate-related policies can be implemented at an accelerated pace, the "small spring" market in core cities in the first quarter is expected. (End)