House market cooling in big cities

Prices of new homes in most of China's first-tier cities declined in December, showing that policies to moderate housing prices tailored to local conditions have been effective, said the National Bureau of Statistics.

All first-tier cities apart from Guangzhou recorded lower average prices for new homes in December, according to NBS data, and average prices of all first-tier cities recorded zero month-on-month growth, showing that the fast rise of housing prices in major cities has been curbed, said the NBS, which tracks home prices in 70 cities across China.

In Shanghai, one of the hottest home markets, new home prices went down month-on-month for two consecutive months.