More steps to boost mood as home prices fall

Home prices in major Chinese cities have continued to cool down in August with more cities reporting negative growth since last month. More support measures are in the pipeline for boosting market sentiment, and more efforts are required to promote the sector's stable and healthy development, said the National Bureau of Statistics spokesman on Friday.

In August, 50 out of 70 surveyed cities saw new home sales prices drop month-on-month, 10 more from July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Compared to the same period last year, new home prices in the 70 Chinese cities either grew at a slower pace or declined in August. The number of cities reporting a year-on-year price dip mounted to 49, one more from that of July.

The four top-tier cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou, Guangdong province, outperformed lower-tier cities in home transactions with average new home prices rising 0.1 percent from the previous month.

Compared to a year ago, the four benchmark cities' new home prices grew 2.8 percent.

The 31 second-tier cities tracked by the NBS reported a decline of 0.2 percent month-on-month on average in new home prices in August, sinking 1 percent from a year ago.

For the 35 third-tier cities, new home prices slipped 0.4 percent month-on-month and 3.7 percent year-on-year.

"In August, home prices in the 70 large and medium-sized Chinese cities have maintained the cooling-down trend of the previous month, suggesting that the sector requires further supportive and stabilizing measures," said Yan Yuejin, director of the Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institution.

"A new round of measures to loosen home purchase restrictions are underway for September, which is hoped to promote market stabilization and healthy development," said Yan.

Prices for pre-owned homes dropped in a rising number of cities, NBS statistics indicated. And 56 cities saw pre-owned home prices decline month-on-month in August, five more than July. And 61 cities recorded a slide in prices year-on-year.