Realty data shares hit rough patch amid sales downturn

Shares of China's three leading property information providers plunged in the US on Friday, underscoring the increasingly harsh business environment amid a weakening property market.

Soufun Holdings Ltd, China's biggest real-estate information website, sank 17 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, the most since 2011. E-House China Holdings Ltd, a Shanghai-based property brokerage, dropped 5 percent. Leju Holdings Ltd, an online brokerage, sank 6.4 percent.

Soufun's retreat comes after the Beijing-based company announced a 40 percent discount on the fees that it charges agencies for listing property information. According to analysts, the discount and other promotions will cost Soufun up to 500 million yuan ($80.53 million). The discount came after nine real-estate brokerages in the city of Hangzhou, which account for around 80 percent of the local brokerage market, stopped putting information on Soufun last month, in a bid to get Soufun to reduce the rates.