China’s New Home Sales Slump Persists as US Tariffs Take Effect

China’s residential property sales stayed weak in April, underscoring the need for authorities to boost efforts to revive housing demand and consumption as trade tensions with the US rise.

The value of new-home sales from the nation’s 100 largest developers fell 8.7% to 284.7 billion yuan ($39.2 billion) from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the China Real Estate Information Corp. That follows an 11.4% decline in March. April’s sales were down 10.4% from the previous month.