(Yicai Global) March 17 -- New house prices in nearly 80 percent of Chinese major cities gained in February from January, and those of pre-owned homes also increased in more than half of metropolises, indicating that the country’s real estate market is getting back on track, Securities Daily reported, citing industry insiders.

The price of new homes went up in 55 cities last month from the month before, much more than January’s gain of 19, according to the results of a poll of 70 medium-sized and large cities released by the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday. And the price of pre-owned homes rebounded in 40 cities.

The property market will grow this month as house prices are on the rise, said Chen Xiao, a senior analyst at Zhuge Data Research Center. Sales of new and second-hand properties have picked up and the recovery of the real estate market is likely to become faster.

House prices plummeted in the smaller third-tier cities last year as these were the metropolises most affected by home owners who refused to repay their mortgages due to delays in the handover of property under construction, said Liu Lijie, a market analyst at Ke Research Institute.

House prices in third-tier cities have now bottomed out, indicating that the difficulties that the real estate market is facing can be resolved, Liu added.

The price of a new home in third-tier cities edged up 0.3 percent in February month on month, compared with a 0.1 percent dip in January, while prices of pre-owned homes remained flat, compared with January’s 0.4 percent drop, the NBS said.

Market recovery this month will be slower than last month as demand is used up and it will take some time for the market to fully recover, Chen said.

Forward-looking indicators in the property market are picking up but have not returned to a high level. Price fluctuations are stable, so house prices are not expected to soar, Liu said.

The real estate market will likely grow steadily as the economy rebounds and market expectations improve, Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, said earlier.

Editor: Kim Taylor