Citizens visit a property developer's sales office in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, on March 4, 2023. Photo: VCG

China's real estate market has been recovering, with some major indices continuing to improve and reversing declines in March. 

In March, the average price of new residential buildings in 100 cities was 16,178 yuan ($2,353) per square meter, a month-on-month increase of 0.02 percent, which marked the first month-on-month increase since the second half of 2022, the China Index Academy announced on Sunday.

The transaction area of new houses in 100 key cities in March increased by more than 20 percent month-on-month and about 40 percent year-on-year, preliminary statistics showed. 

In the first quarter, sales for China's top 100 housing enterprises totaled 1.76 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.2 percent year-on-year, marking the first growth since 2022, according to the China Index Academy.

Analysts said that if housing policies remain effective and the economy steadily improves, the confidence of homebuyers is expected to continue to recover. 

The academy also predicted that the national property market will remain stable in the second quarter.

The increase in the supply of residential land fully indicated that the housing market is recovering, which is also a reflection of the recovery of confidence in the real estate market, Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times.

As one of the major metrics of the real estate market, approved residential land supplies in 50 key cities increased about 30 percent on a yearly basis in March, according to the China Index Academy.

"Land supplies show strong recovery momentum nationwide, which also indicates that the real estate market is recovering," said Yan.

For instance, on Friday, an auction for five residential land sites in South China's Shenzhen was successful, with the winning bids totaling 7.2 billion yuan, with an average premium rate of 10.13 percent.

"The premium rate indicates that the enthusiasm for investment in land acquisition is up significantly, which is a positive signal for the real estate sector," said Yan.

Global Times