China Home Sales Slump Most Since July as Covid Hurts Recovery

(Bloomberg) — China’s new-home sales fell the most since July as the country’s latest Covid-19 outbreak took hold, threatening to prolong the property slump. 

Sales by value dropped 29% in March from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on year-to-date figures released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The decline is another blow to the embattled property sector, which has been hit by a cash crunch among developers that’s disrupted construction, shattered homebuyer confidence and led to a wave of debt defaults. The March figures don’t show the full impact of lockdowns in Shanghai and some parts of the southern metropolis of Guangzhou that have kept potential buyers away.