Housing market begins to cool down

Overheated property markets in major cities have started to cool down after authorities took measures against speculative buying and a potential home market bubble. However, a long-term effort is needed to make the market stable and sustainable, analysts said.

Last month, new home prices dropped in seven cities, compared with six in September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which monitors housing prices in 70 cities nationwide.

In Shenzhen, where housing prices rocketed by more than 30 percent, a record, in the past several months, prices declined by 0.5 percent in October.