More Chinese residents said they expect home prices to rise and they were unhappy with inflation, a central bank survey said yesterday.

About 45.9 percent of respondents said they expect housing prices to increase in the next quarter, up 4.7 percentage points from a quarter ago, the People's Bank of China said on its Website yesterday. It was also up 29.9 percentage points from the first quarter. The figure has kept rising for two straight quarters.

The central bank conducted the quarterly survey among urban residents in 50 cities in the second half of November.

Property prices in 70 major Chinese cities climbed 5.5 percent in November from a year ago, and gained 1.1 percent month on month.

Home prices in Shanghai are among the fastest rising in China, and the prices of new homes, excluding those designated for relocated residents under urban redevelopment plans, rose to a record 22,270 yuan (US$3,262) per square meter on average in Shanghai last week. It was the highest since the city started to track home prices.

Meanwhile, residents were less content with prices as about 46.8 percent of them said that they thought current prices too high which made homes out of reach for them, up 1.6 percentage points from a quarter earlier.

On inflation, only 28.2 percent of respondents said they were comfortable, down from 29.5 percent a quarter ago. Residents also expect higher prices in the future as inflationary expectations keep rising.

China's inflation rose in November after nine straight months of declines. The Consumer Price Index, a major gauge of inflation, rose 0.6 percent last month while it fell 0.5 percent in October.

Food prices rose 3.2 percent and non-food prices dipped 0.7 percent last month.

Economists forecast China's inflation to rise to 2.5 percent in 2010.

In another survey of bankers, 66 percent of them said they expected the monetary policy to remain the same in the first quarter of 2010.

They are also optimistic about China's economic growth.