NEW home price in China rose 25.1 percent in 2009 from a year earlier, far exceeding a growth of 9.8 percent in per capita disposable income by urban residents on the mainland.

This was revealed in an annual blue paper released yesterday by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Sales of new homes rose nearly 44 percent year on year to 850 million square meters across the mainland, both the fastest and the highest in the nation's history, the paper said.

Stimulant policies by the government, a recovering domestic economy, insufficient supply of new homes and rising land prices helped boost the country's housing market.