China’s new home prices in October fell by the most since February 2015 as Evergrande continues to grapple with its $300 billion debt load

• China’s new home prices fell .2% in October, the biggest decline since February 2015.
• The decline comes as embattled developer Evergrande continues to grapple with its $300 billion debt load.
• The real-estate sector accounts for 25% of China’s GDP.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s October new home prices fell 0.2% month-on-month, the biggest decline since February 2015, amid continued demand weakness across the country with authorities holding the line on purchase restrictions to deter speculators.

New home prices rose 3.4% year-on-year in October, slower than the growth of 3.8% in September, according to Reuters calculations of data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.

Sentiment in China’s property market, which accounts for a quarter of gross domestic product by some metrics, has been rocked by concerns about major property developers grappling with massive debts.

Editing by Christian Schmollinger.