(Dec 1): Two of China’s private data agencies withheld monthly home sales figures at the government’s behest, people familiar with the matter said, stoking transparency concerns in a critical sector of the world’s second-largest economy.
China Real Estate Information Corp and China Index Academy, which are among the country’s biggest private property data providers, didn’t disclose the combined sales of the nation’s 100 largest developers for November on Sunday.
The two agencies, which usually release the data on the last day of every month, were told by China’s housing bureau to suspend making such figures publicly available until further notice, the people familiar said, asking not to be named discussing private information. Financial institutions that paid for the figures will still have access to them, provided they keep the data confidential, one of the people said.
The housing ministry didn’t immediately offer a comment when reached Monday.
The delayed data disclosure came after China Vanke Co — long considered one of the sector’s healthier firms — sought to postpone repayment on a local bond for the first time last week. Vanke’s surprise move added to the industry’s woes after years of falling sales and massive defaults by China Evergrande Group, Country Garden Holdings Co, and others.
The missing housing data “could increase uncertainty about the struggling sector’s condition”, Kristy Hung, a senior real estate analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a Monday note. “The November data would likely show steeper declines.”
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The private data sets are important gauges of the new-home market as they are usually published two or three weeks before the official data. The government typically releases monthly new property sales in the third week of every month.
In October, China Real Estate Information’s reading suggested new home sales for the country’s top 100 builders slumped 41.9% from a year earlier, the biggest monthly drop in 18 months, Bloomberg calculations show. November’s figures will be closely scrutinised as they compare to a high base a year earlier following a stimulus blitz from the government.
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Global banks remain pessimistic on China’s property market, which has faced renewed sales weakness since the second quarter. UBS Group AG expects home prices to keep falling for at least two more years. Values of used homes have also dropped sharply, down more than a third from peak levels in major cities, according to UBS.
Fitch Ratings warned last month that new-home sales by area could decline another 15%–20% before the sector stabilises. The bleak outlook suggests banks’ property-related bad debt will likely stay “elevated” next year, Fitch said.
China Real Estate Information and China Index Academy didn’t offer comments when reached on Monday.
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