Drops in China's new home sales narrowed in March, while the decline in home prices decelerated slightly on a monthly basis, offering a measure of relief for Chinese policymakers grappling with a protracted real estate slump.

But there were still weak spots in the data, with home prices falling more quickly on a yearly basis despite the policy support.

In March, new-home prices in 70 major Chinese cities edged down 0.34% in month-over-month terms, compared with a 0.36% monthly decline in February, according to calculations by The Wall Street Journal based on data released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Among 70 cities surveyed by the statistics bureau, 57 of them reported a month-over-month price drop in March, down from 59 in February.

Data released Tuesday also showed declines in China's new-home sales by both value and floor area narrowing as Beijing's earlier demand-side support for Chinese households started to kick in.

New-home sales by value fell 27.6% in year-over-year terms in the first three months of the year, improving from the 32.7% drop for the January-February period, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Meanwhile, new-home sales by floor area fell 19.4% during the January-March period when compared to a year earlier, the statistics bureau said, compared with the 24.8% decline in the first two months of the year.

China's property market has been mired in a yearslong slump, emerging as a key drag on the world's second-largest economy. Since last summer, Beijing has rolled out a cascade of supporting policies to aid the struggling sector, but economists say there's little sign of the downturn bottoming out despite some marginal improvements.

On a yearly basis, new-home prices in 70 major Chinese cities fell 2.65% in March, faster than the 1.9% year-over-year decline in February. There were 58 cities reporting year-over-year price declines, slightly higher than February's 57 cities,

Other property indicators also showed continued weakness. Property investment fell 9.5% in the January-March period from a year earlier, compared with a 9.0% drop in the first two months of the year. New construction starts by property developers dropped 27.8%, compared with a 29.7% fall in the January-February period.


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