China’s property downturn showed little sign of stabilising in January, with new home prices falling 3.1% year-on-year, deepening from the prior 2.7% decline. On a monthly basis, prices slipped 0.4%, unchanged from December, underscoring the persistence of downward momentum in the sector. The data reinforces the view that China’s housing market remains entrenched in a multi-year correction. What began as a liquidity squeeze among heavily leveraged developers has evolved into a broader demand slump, with weak buyer confidence, falling sales volumes and declining prices feeding into each other. The sector’s debt burden ... (full story)