House Price Index in China

A sale-price index for newly built and second-hand commercial housing across 70 medium and large Chinese cities. Published monthly by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), it is the official barometer of China's property market.

The NBS collects the prices of registered transactions in each of the 70 cities and computes price indices for new and existing homes. Month-on-month and year-on-year changes are reported, along with the number of cities recording rises or falls.

Property is a central engine of China's economy and of household wealth, so these prices are watched closely as a signal of domestic demand and of stress in the developer sector. Prolonged declines weigh on growth and often prompt policy stimulus.

The index covers only 70 cities and does not capture the whole country or the rural market. Administrative price caps and wide differences between cities can mask the underlying trend, and the series may be revised.