CRI听力：Property Prices in Major Cities Start to Cool

New figures show property prices are rising at a slower rate across the country, a sign the government's macro-control measures are beginning to bite.

The China Daily says the price of residential property within Shanghai's outer ring road have dropped an average 3.2 percent to about 8,000 yuan (or 1,060 US dollars) per square metre. That's according to numbers crunched by global property information provider CB Richard Ellis.

Analysis shows that investors are expected to diversify their portfolios with the recent introduction of a tightening policy on second property purchases and as developers hold off launching new units.

Shuai Hu, a property analyst at Haitong Securities, told China Daily that prices in the second-tier cities are starting to pick up, but momentum in major cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen will gradually subside.

In Suzhou, a city near Shanghai, residential property prices have jumped 20 percent from the year before. The average price in the downtown area is now 10,000 yuan or 1,330 US dollars per square metre