Property price rise slows in big cities

Home price rises in 15 first- and second-tier cities eased in April as city-specific measures against realty speculation continued to bite, amid stricter restrictions and tighter lending, according to data released on Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Among 70 cities tracked by the NBS, new home and preowned home prices in 30 cities saw slowing growth year-on-year, and 31 cities had slower new home price rises month-on-month.

"New home price growth in second-tier cities was 0.1 percent lower than that of March," said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician.