False data raises doubt on China property market

The reliability of data on China's property market has been put into question after it emerged that Chinese firms in Shanghai have falsified answers in responses to some polls conducted by the national statistics agency.

The problems, which ranged from omitting data to reporting inaccurate prices, were identified by the Shanghai arm of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The NBS announced its findings on its website but did not say that any of its reports or surveys had erroneously characterised the housing market conditions in the country.

Surveys carried out by the NBS contribute to a significant amount of data about China's housing prices. The public has long been critical of some of the statistics, saying that they downplay how costly properties have become.

Last week, a striking case of discrepancies emerged within official data. According to the NBS, housing prices in 70 key cities remained the same in June and July.

However, the National Development and Reform Commission said property prices in 36 major cities actually climbed 1.6 percent in July from June, based on information by the price monitoring bureau of the agency.