By Song Yao (宋尧)
Economic Observer Online
Nov 2, 2011
Translated by Zhu Na
Original Article: [Chinese]

According to statistics on housing prices in 100 cities across China released by the China Real Estate Index System (中国房地产指数系统) yesterday, the average price of housing continued to fall in October, down 0.23 percent when compared with the previous month.

When compared to the average price of residential property in October 2010, prices have increased by 5.21 percent

Of the 100 cities surveyed, 58 saw housing prices fall month-on-month, this is 14 cities more than the 44 that registered a month-on-month fall in September.

Langfang, Chongqing and Beihai saw the quickest pace of decline, with average housing prices in each of these 3 cities falling by 1.5 percent on the September figures.

All three of these cities have been strictly enforcing property purchase restrictions which were introduced earlier this year.

However, prices in third-tier cities liek Baoji, Dezhou and Changshu continued to increase by over 1 percent a month.

Prices have been pushed down in many cities as developers begin to buckle under the dual pressure of property purchase restrictions and tightened monetary policy.

Since August, large property developers such as Longhu, Shouchuang, Wanke, Fuli and Hengda all started sales promotion in first and second-tier cities, some real estate projects saw prices fall by over 20 percent when compared with the previous month.

Links and Sources
Soufun:《2011年10月中国房地产指数系统百城价格指数》