China's home prices see slower growth in October

BEIJING - Home prices in 70 major Chinese cities remained generally stable with slower month-on-month growth in most cities in October, official data showed Friday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- increased 0.1 percent month-on-month in October, 0.3 percentage points lower than the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

In 31 second-tier cities, new home prices rose 0.5 percent in October from September, 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous month.

New home prices rose 0.6 percent in 35 third-tier cities in October from September and the growth pace was 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous month.

Prices of resold housing in first-tier cities edged up 0.1 percent in October from September, and the growth rate was 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous month.

Prices of resold homes in second-tier cities reported a rise of 0.1 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. Resold home prices were up 0.5 percent in third-tier cities, 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous month.

NBS statistician Kong Peng said the real estate market continued its steady trend in October with slower growth in prices, as the central government has reiterated that "housing is for living in, not for speculation," calling for the implementation of a differentiated approach to property market regulation.

China's property market saw more regulations in the first 10 months of this year, data from Centaline Property showed.

A total of 482 housing regulatory measures were rolled out during the January-October period, up 20 percent year on year.

In October alone, 67 housing regulatory policies were introduced, focusing on preferential treatment for skilled workers, housing provident funds and rental housing.

"Transactions in the market slowed down as potential property buyers adopted a wait-and-see strategy," said Zhang Dawei, chief analyst with Centaline Property, estimating that there will be more follow-up measures as the government sticks to the principle of keeping the property market stable.