Property price growth slows further in March

The growth in property prices in China's major cities slowed further in March, with fewer cities posting a month-on-month increase, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

Of a statistical pool of 70 cities, 56 saw gains in new home prices last month, down from 57 in February, according to the NBS. Prices in 10 cities remained flat and dropped in four.

"The number of cities that haven't seen a price hike on a monthly basis reached a record high since 2013, while the average growth rate hit a record low since 2013," said Zhang Dawei, Centaline Property Agency Ltd's chief analyst.

Nanjing and Xiamen saw the biggest monthly increase of 0.6 percent. In February, the home price increase was capped at 0.7 percent.

New home prices and pre-owned home price growth in the country's four key cities fell to below 16 percent, compared to the ceiling of 18.7 in February.

For pre-owned homes, prices rose in 42 cities in March on a monthly basis, down from 46 the previous month, according to the NBS.

Zhang said there could be a time lag between the NBS statistics and market reality.

Statistics from Centaline showed that only 8,943 units of pre-owned homes were sold in March, which was a record low since 2009.

"Tightening credit and an increase of government-subsidized housing both led to a strong wait-and-see attitude in the market," Zhang said.