China’s house prices rise 0.4 percent in March from Feb

BEIJING, April 18 (Reuters) – New home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 0.4 percent in March from the previous month, accelerating from a 0.2 percent gain in February.

Average new home prices rose 4.9 percent in March from a year earlier, easing from a 5.2 percent increase in February, Reuters calculated from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data published on Wednesday.

Home prices in China have slowly levelled off in big cities in recent months, while some smaller cities are still seeing appreciable rises despite cooling measures. (Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Sam Holmes)