BEIJING: China"s new home sales rose sharply in March, as a slew of support policies boosted a pickup in demand across the board in 14 surveyed cities, a private survey showed on Monday. The sales of new homes rose 55.7 percent month-on-month, up from growth of 31.9 percent in February, according to data from the China Index Academy — one of the country"s largest independent real estate researchers. Tier-one cities — including the nation"s capital Beijing and the commercial hub of Shanghai — rose the fastest, jumping 73 percent last month. Sales in tier-two cities and tier-three cities grew 54.7 percent and 28.6 percent, respectively. The data will be welcome news for the sector, once the pillar of China"s economic growth, but which was crushed by several crises since mid-2021, including developers" debt defaults and stalled construction of pre-sold housing projects. Policymakers in the country had introduced a comprehensive bailout package at the end of last year to propel sales and enable project completions, which helped improve the sentiment. Real estate developers gained 2.4 percent on Monday. The industry has also seen some gradual recovery in recent weeks, as homebuyers look to make a return after Beijing abandoned its stringent "zero-COVID" policy in December. Local governments, too, continued to ease property curbs or roll out stimulus policies to improve buyers" sentiment. The southeastern city of Xiamen relaxed home-buying curbs, allowing more residents to purchase properties. Prices of new homes in 100 Chinese cities rose at the fastest pace in nine months in March, a separate survey by the researcher showed on Saturday.