CBN丨China home prices continue to improve in January

来源：21世纪经济报道

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Home prices in first-tier Chinese cities continue to rise in January;Guangdong vows to accelerate development of AI and robotics in 2025.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

Home prices in first-tier Chinese cities rose again in January on a monthly basis, official data showed on Wednesday.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), new and resold home prices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen each rose by 0.1 percent month-on-month.

Among the 70 large and medium-sized cities, 24 recorded monthly increases in new home prices, up from 23 in December, while seven saw gains in resold home prices, down from nine the previous month.

Notably, new home prices in second-tier cities increased by 0.1 percent in January, marking their first rise since June 2023, the NBS data showed.

The data indicated that stability in home prices, observed since Q4 2024, continues in the property market, with increasing signs of recovery as price stability boosts market expectations, said Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute.

Yan said that the shift from decline to growth in housing prices in first- and second-tier cities is a major signal, as improving signs reflect the precision and effectiveness of support policies introduced since late September.

China has introduced a series of policies to stimulate economic growth. Since late September 2024, the central government has unveiled a package of milestone macroeconomic measures, aimed at strengthening counter-cyclical adjustments, boosting domestic demand, supporting businesses, reviving the property market, and revitalizing capital markets.

Greater Bay Area, Greater future

Guangdong Province will accelerate efforts to establish itself as a leading hub for artificial intelligence and robotics as the province is prioritizing the two sectors in the drafting of the provincial 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), while rolling out supportive policies, encompassing business support, talent cultivation, and industrial promotion, provincial officials said at a symposium participated by industry insiders and business representatives on Tuesday. Huang Kunming, Party chief of Guangdong Province, vowed to promote the deep adoption of AI application scenarios in sectors such as manufacturing, education, and healthcare, while accelerating the demonstration and promotion of intelligent robots and core technologies in key scenarios. As for cultivating talent, Huang noted that the province will prioritize attracting talent related to AI and robotics with more convenient and preferential measures while enhancing its independent training of talent.Hong Kong banks borrowed the largest amount of short-term cash in more than five years on Tuesday, as they sought to keep up with a booming demand for local equities. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority loaned out HK$5.5 billion through its discount window, the most since December 2019, according to media reports.Hong Kong filmmaker and comedy star Stephen Chow cosplayed as Ne Zha with a meatball head wig and the character's iconic weapons, Red Armillary Sash and Universe Ring, according to a post by his agent on Weibo today. “Ne Zha 2" is set to premiere in Hong Kong on Feb. 22. The film officially became the world’s highest-grossing animation film at all time after surpassing Disney’s “Inside Out 2” on Tuesday with 12.3 billion yuan in box office revenue.

Next on industry and company news

Goods worth more than $292 million were processed by the Chancay Port in Peru, a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), during the port's first three months of operation, according to data from Peruvian customs and tax authorities.Xiaomi is poised to apply AI to various terminal products, including handsets, autos, smart home devices, and smart manufacturing goods, and expand domestic and overseas markets to enrich global consumers' lives, Chairman Lei Jun said after the recent symposium on the private sector.JD.com will gradually provide welfare benefits, including five different types of social insurance and one housing fund, for full-time takeout deliverymen, starting next month, the Chinese e-commerce firm said today. It will also pay for accident and medical insurance for part-time riders.Recent information from a recruitment platform reveals that Ant Group is hiring for positions related to embodied intelligent humanoid robot systems and applications. The recruitment is being conducted by Shanghai Ant Lingbo Technology Co., Ltd., a company established at the end of 2024 with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. One insider confirmed that "Ant Group is indeed working on embodied intelligence," signaling the company's foray into the development of advanced humanoid robotics.Kunlun Tech announced yesterday it open-sourced China's first AI short-drama creation video generation model SkyReels-V1 and state-of-the-art motion-action controllable algorithm SkyReels-A1. Geely also announced yesterday its car manufacturing unit and AI startup Stepfun will make two of their text-to-video and text-to-speech models open source, following in the footsteps of industry pioneer DeepSeek.

Earnings reports express

IQiyi's shares plunged after the leading Chinese video streaming site operator reported shrinking earnings for last year despite remaining upbeat for 2025 because of large investments in mini-dramas and overseas expansion. Net profit shrank 60 percent to 764.1 million yuan last year from the year before. Revenue fell 8 percent to 29.2 billion yuan .Baidu's net profit jumped 21 percent to 23.4 billion yuan last year from the prior one, while its core revenue fell 1 percent to 133.1 billion yuan, the Chinese search giant's financial report showed. AI Cloud gained momentum, CEO Robin Li noted..

Switching gears to financial news

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index surged to 1,139.38 points on Wednesday, reaching its highest level since November last year, buoyed by optimism of Wall Street for the Chinese stock market amid an artificial intelligence boom and supportive economic stimulus measures.China's holdings of US Treasury bonds fell to $759 billion in December, according to data released by the US Treasury Department on Tuesday (US time). It marked a ninth month of declines in China's holdings of US government debt in 2024.

Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market