At the end of March, Li Keqiang, China’s newly installed premier, publicly reiterated the government’s determination to rein in rising property prices and a resurgent investment binge in the real estate market.

But by every measure the market continued to boom in April, with prices, sales and investment in new buildings all accelerating from March. New house prices in 70 cities rose by an average of 4.3 per cent in April from a year earlier, accelerating from 3.1 per cent in March, according to estimates from Nomura based on partial data provided by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

“April’s data show that there has been no slowdown and the housing price increase was as strong if not stronger than in previous months,” said Du Jinsong, a real estate analyst at Credit Suisse. “Even as investment has slowed down in most other parts of the economy, it remains high in real estate.”