Chinese house prices rise sharply

China’s new home prices in December jumped by the most last year even as the country’s biggest cities tightened property controls to moderate price gains.

The average price rose 12% from a year earlier to 10,833 yuan ($1,789) per square metre (10.76 square feet), SouFun Holdings Ltd., the nation’s biggest real estate website owner, said in an emailed statement yesterday based on a survey of 100 cities. Prices climbed 0.7% from November.

Premier Li Keqiang has refrained from adding national property curbs that could hurt economic growth, after predecessor Wen Jiabao in March stepped up a three-year campaign to rein in home prices. Almost one fifth of respondents in a Renmin University of China survey gave a zero score on the government’s property policies, indicating “near despair” on housing prices, the official China News Service reported this week, citing survey results.