China’s home prices across smaller cities warm up

Bloomberg

China’s home prices are warming up in the nation’s smaller cities, even as the government prolongs a campaign to rein in speculation and control bubbles.
New-home price gains are picking up the most in the third-tier cities, rising 0.46 percent in November on a month-on-month basis, according to Bloomberg Intelligence calculations based on government data tracking 70 cities.
The speed of the gains has accelerated for two straight months from this year’s slowest pace in September. There’s a similar pattern for second-tier cities. While the gains remain small, they point to persistent price pressures as the government tries to control a frothy housing market without triggering dangerous corrections.
In the tier-one cities, which include Beijing and Shanghai, values fell about 0.1 percent.