China April new home prices fall for the first time since Dec
BEIJING, May 18 (Reuters) - China's new home prices in April fell for the first time month-on-month since December, official data showed on Wednesday, depressed by strict COVID-19 lockdowns in many cities, despite more easing steps aimed at supporting demand.
Average new home prices in 70 major cities fell 0.2% on a month-on-month basis, compared with zero growth in March, according to Reuters calculations based on April data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
New home prices rose 0.7% from a year earlier, the slowest pace since October 2015 and easing from a 1.5% gain in March.
The outlook of China's property market remained bleak in recent months, with a sharp slowdown in property sales after the pillar of the world's second-largest economy was chilled due to Beijing's clampdown on excessive borrowing from developers. (Reporting by Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo; Editing by Bradley Perrett)
