China's housing market continues to ease in September

BEIJING -- China continued to see its housing market ease in September under strengthened market regulations, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Wednesday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities stood unchanged in September from a month earlier, compared with a month-on-month growth of 0.3 percent in August, according to the NBS data.

Prices of second-hand homes in the four cities edged down 0.4 percent last month from that in August, reversing the mild month-on-month increase seen in August.

A total of 31 second-tier cities also saw no month-on-month change in new home prices, while 35 third-tier cities saw month-on-month decline of 0.2 percent in new home prices.

On a yearly basis, new home prices in the four first-tier cities increased 5.3 percent in September, while prices of second-hand homes in these regions climbed 7.7 percent from a year earlier.

The latest data came amid the country's strict housing sector regulations, which follow the principle -- "housing is for living in, not for speculation."

Wednesday's data showed that China's over-five-year loan prime rate, a market-based benchmark lending rate on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, remained unchanged from the previous reading of 4.65 percent, according to the National Interbank Funding Center.