In April, China's average house prices jumped 4.3 percent year over year, demonstrating that official efforts to temper the country's housing market are failing.
After a 3.6 percent year-over-year gain in March, average house prices rose for the fourth month in a row. items for sale
According to the Wall Street Journal, home prices grew in 68 of the 70 locations studied in April, up 0.9 percent from the previous month, compared to a 1% increase in March.
Rising property prices and economic growth are posing a problem for the Chinese government. The majority of Chinese citizens are unable to purchase homes on the open market.
As a result, the government has enacted a slew of policies aimed at reducing speculation and foreign investment in real estate.
"While there was some reduction in April, many cities still have rising prices...expectations that prices will continue to climb haven't been erased," Liu Jianwei, a Chinese National Bureau of Statistics official, told the Journal.
A surge in loans to home purchasers is fueling the rise in home values. According to the Wall Street Journal, overall lending increased 64.7 percent year over year in the first four months of 2013, with the majority of it going into the real estate sector.
Although the rise in property prices poses a challenge to government policy, analysts remain concerned about a harsh drop if the bubble breaks. For the time being, however, the property market is experiencing increased demand, as demonstrated by a rise in land sales and new home development in 2013, according to the daily.