Turning point in sight for ailing housing sector after credit easing

Property sales and investment activity fell to fresh lows last month, but stimulus measures from the central bank have given rise to hopes that the worst will soon be over.

The National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday that residential property sales in the first nine months of the year slumped 10.8 percent year-on-year, the largest fall since April 2012. Investment growth in the same period was just 12.5 percent, tying the figure for August 2009, when the world was in the grips of the financial crisis.

With house price declines spreading to a record number of cities and new construction tumbling, the government took aim at reversing the housing slowdown in September, cutting mortgage rates for some homebuyers for the first time since the global financial crisis.