In December home prices fell in China at a faster pace according to a new survey released on Sunday, due to persistently weak demand being produced by the rising wave of resurgent Covid infections.

This summer China’s property market crisis accelerated as official data showed home prices, sales, and investment all fell, over recent months, putting additional pressure on an economy already faltering due to the resurgence of the Covid-19 virus.

According to a survey by China Index Academy (CIA), one of the country’s largest independent real estate research firms, for the sixth month in a row in December, home prices in 100 cities have fallen as a whole, declining 0.08% from the previous month, following a 0.06% fall in November.

68 of the 100 cities posted a fall in monthly prices, which was a rise from the 57 seen in November.

In recent weeks, the Chinese government has tried to increase support for the housing and real estate sector, seeking to alleviate a long-running liquidity squeeze which has been afflicting developers and slowed the completion of development projects.

Stories of customers who had purchased units from developers, only to have them not being built due to lack of liquid funds on the part of the developer, had been impacting confidence in the sector. In response the government had lifted a ban on fundraising using equity offerings which had been in place for many property firms.

The property sector had initially seen a brief boost as the government began to back away from its stringent “zero-Covid” policies in December, and customers began to flock back to showrooms. However as the virus began to take off, and with some reports claiming millions of people are being infected each day, once again the sector has begun to slow down.

China Index Academy noted, “Real estate policies may continue to maintain an accommodative tone with room for policy easing on the supply and demand side in 2023. The housing market is expected to stabilize gradually next year.”