CRI听力:China Sept. Home Prices Continue to Moderate

Home prices continued to ease in most Chinese cities last month.

The National Bureau of Statistics is reporting new home prices in 69 of 70 major cities monitored are reporting month-on-month drops.

The only exception is the city of Xiamen, where home prices remained flat from the previous month.

Second home prices in all the same cities registered a monthly decline as well.

Senior NBS statistician Liu Jianwei says that though property prices remained in a year-on-year slump, the prices fell at a slower pace.

Zhao Xijun is the head of the Finance and Economics School at Renmin University of China.

"These minor policy changes still fall in line with the government's general purpose of adjustment in the property market. That is to limit demands of investments and speculations."

At the end of last month, China's central bank released a policy change, treating second-time home buyers the same as first-timers.

That includes discounts on mortgage rates and lower down payments.

Earlier this year, most cities in China relaxed limits on home purchases that only allow people to buy no more than two homes.