Summary
In April 2005 the new housing construction cost index on the mainland declined by 1.6% from the same month in 2004, which represents a 0.8 percentage point (p.p.) deceleration from March. This development of the index was due to a further deceleration of 2.9 p.p. in the material component, and the corresponding year-on-year change stood at -0.8%. The labour component in new housing construction costs accelerated slightly from 3.7% to 3.9%. The year-on-year change in the housing regular repair and maintenance price index on the mainland was 3.0%, down by 0.5 p.p. from the previous month. The year-on-year rate of change in the services component was 3.0%, declining by 0.8 p.p., while the product component for housing regular maintenance and repair decelerated by 0.3 p.p. from the previous period, to 2.9%.