国内英语新闻:Property prices in major Chinese cities up 9.1% in September

BEIJING, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Property prices in 70 major Chinese cities rose 9.1 percent year on year in September, the slowest growth rate this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The rate was down 0.2 percentage points from the 9.3-percent growth rate in August, a statement on the NBS website said.

On a month-on-month basis, prices rose 0.5 percent in September.

New home prices climbed 11.3 percent year on year in September, also up 0.5 percent from August.

Prices for second-hand homes rose 6.2 percent from a year earlier and 0.5 percent on a month-on-month basis.

Real estate investment continued to expand in the first three quarters, with the total standing at 3.4 trillion yuan (511.4 billion U.S. dollars), up 36.4 percent from the same period in 2009, the statement said.

The property price growth rate peaked this year at 12.8 percent in April.

To curb excessive rises in housing prices, the central government introduced a raft of policies in April, including higher down payments and an end to mortgage discounts.

It also encouraged local governments to build more affordable housing to increase the supply of housing for low-income people.

On Sept. 29, the government announced further measures to check the continuous rise in property prices, including by banning loans for third home purchases and instituting a 50 percent down payment requirement for second-home purchases and a 30 percent down payment for all first-home purchases.

Xue Jianxiong, an analyst with the China Real Estate Information Corporation (CRIC), said the overheated property market will likely cool in the next few months.

These government's moves will cause transaction volumes to tumble and ease price-increase expectations, Xue added.