China May urban property prices up 5.8% on yr ago

BEIJING, June 14 (Reuters) China's annual growth in urban property prices accelerated to 5.8 percent in May from 5.6 percent in April, official figures showed on Wednesday.

Average property prices across 70 cities edged up 0.7 percent in May from April, the National Development and Reform Commission, the top planning agency, said in a report on its Web site (www.ndrc.gov.cn).

Prices for newly constructed residential properties in May climbed 6.1 percent from a year earlier, down from 6.4 percent in April, it said.

Among the newly constructed housing, prices for social housing increased 4.8 percent from a year earlier, it said.

Prices for what it called ''normal'' residential properties rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier, while annual price growth for high-end residences was 6.9 percent.

The hottest markets were Dalian in the northeast, Shenzhen in the south, Hohot in Inner Mongolia, and Fuzhou in the southeast, with year-on-year price rises of 15.2 percent, 13.7 percent, 11.4 percent and 10.3 percent respectively.

Prices for newly constructed housing in Beijing rose 9.0 percent from a year earlier.

Concern about overly rapid price rises in some markets has prompted the government to launch cooling measures aimed at the property sector, including raising down-payment requirements for certain properties and limiting the number of new high-end homes.

Authorities have said the measures were aimed at cooling speculative activity in the property market, and did not intend to raise the barriers to purchasing a modest home.

Prices for new houses in Shanghai fell 6.2 percent from a year earlier. It had been the focus of earlier efforts to rein in prices.

Month-on-month price increases were most pronounced in Dalian, Xiamen and Fuzhou, where they were 3.5 percent, 2.5 percent and 2.3 percent respectively.

Prices in Beijing rose 1.5 percent in May from April.

Prices of existing residential properties increased 6.7 percent from a year earlier across the 70 cities, compared with 5.8 percent in April.

Prices for non-residential commercial properties rose 4.4 percent from a year earlier, the agency said, compared with 3.9 percent in April.

REUTERS DH BST0747