Urban home price gains moderate in October

China's home prices, both new and existing, rose at a slower pace in all-tiered cities in October as the market further stabilized and tightening measures remain in place, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

In the four gateway cities, new home prices climbed by an average 0.1 percent from September, down 0.3 percentage points from a month ago, according to the bureau, which tracks housing prices in 70 major cities around the country.

In particular, a month-over-month gain of 0.4 percent was recorded in both Shanghai and Shenzhen, whilst in Beijing and Guangzhou, new home prices dipped 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

In the pre-occupied housing market, prices in the four cities added 0.1 percent as well, compared with a 0.3 percent rise in September.

In 31 second-tier cities, new home prices rose by an average of 0.5 percent, decelerating from the 0.6 percent increase recorded in September. Prices of existing homes climbed 0.1 percent, also shedding 0.1 percentage point from the previous month.

As for 35 third-tier cities monitored by the bureau, new home prices rose by 0.6 percent, 0.2 percentage points slower than that in September. Existing home prices climbed 0.5 percent from a month ago, easing from September's 0.7 percent growth.

"Despite the negative impact from the weeklong National Day holiday, new home sales generally extended their strength across different-tiered cities in October with real estate developers remaining active in launching promotional offerings to lure buyers, keeping prices on an upward trend," said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co. "However, the number of cities registering month-over-month price declines rose to 17, five more than September, indicating that the market might be losing some of its momentum."

In the existing housing market, the number of cities seeing prices retreat from a month ago totaled 35, an increase of seven from September.

Across the country, new home prices in Xining, capital city of Qinghai Province, recorded the largest month-on-month increase of 2.8 percent, the bureau's data showed.

On a year-on-year basis, prices of new homes added 4.7 percent, 8.7 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively, in first-, second- and third-tier cities. In the pre-occupied market, they gained 0.5 percent, 4.4 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, from same period a year ago, the bureau said.