Cranes are seen at a construction site of a housing complex in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: VCG

China's Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ni Hong said on Tuesday that he has full confidence in the recovery of the nation's housing market, given a fast rise in transactions.

Ni made the remarks after the second plenary meeting of the first session of the 14th National People's Congress on Tuesday, adding that commercial housing sales in China ended 13 months of falls in January.

"A positive impact occurred on both the supply and demand sides of real estate as the optimized COVID-19 response measures took effect," Ni said.

Workers and materials can enter construction sites smoothly, bringing a big increase of the resumption rate of housing projects. Also, more potential buyers are viewing housing, bringing improved transactions, Ni added. 

"The main confidence of the housing market is being regained," he said, as housing prices in 70 major cities remain stable, housing deliveries go smoothly and home financing gets better. 

New home prices in first-tier cities including Beijing and Shanghai rose by 0.2 percent in January month-on-month, after being flat in December, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released on February 16.

Among 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed by the statistics agency, 36 witnessed a rise in new home prices, up from 21 in December. 

But Ni emphasized that improvement shouldn't lead to speculation. 

The rebound is based on the principle of "housing is for living, not for speculation," he said, adding that such a rebound is meant to meet the people's need for basic housing or improved housing.

Ni said in January in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency that China will work to promote the steady development and recovery of the property market this year. He also pledged efforts to boost confidence in the property market, ward off risks, and steer the sector onto a high-quality development path in 2023.

Ni also stressed the importance of resolving risks faced by the country's real estate developers.

"Forestalling and defusing risks in the sector is the bottom line, as it concerns the healthy development of the property market, as well as the steady and sustainable development of the economy," the minister said.

As for the financial risks of the housing market, Ni said it will support high-quality state-owned and private real estate enterprises to meet their reasonable financing needs. 

"For companies with financial problems, we will help them save themselves, while never allowing behavior that harms the public interest."

Global Times