China's property market remained stable in January. New residential home prices were down year on year, in 11 of the 15 major cities considered to be the "hottest markets". And insiders say, 2018 will be a key year for the government to introduce a long term mechanism. Wang Xiaozhou reports.

A stable trend across the board. In the first month of 2018, China's home prices edged down slightly in major cities. New home prices in Shanghai and Guangzhou saw a 0.4 percent decline in January, while Beijing posted a slight increase on a monthly basis. The country's real estate market has been cooling since 2017, building speculation that the government would start loosening property policies in the near future. But industry insiders disagree.

MO TIANQUAN, CEO FANG.COM "My reading is from two levels. The first is from the central government. There's no way to lose the current regulation policy. In a period of time, the control on price hike will be the priority. The government will try to maintain the transaction volume on a certain level. Second, from the local government level, there's always a conflict between the central and local gov't. They need to deal with the real problems."

Insiders say that 2018 will be a crucial year to flesh out a long-effect mechanism for China's property market. And both developers and home buyers are closely watching on if the government is going to come up with new policies on property taxes or ownership reforms.

VIRGINIA HUANG, MANAGING DIRECTOR CBRE GREATER CHINA "More lands will be used for rental housing demand and will diverse the ownership."

MO TIANQUAN, CEO FANG.COM "We do need a long term policy. In the past ten years, we experienced 5 cycles of property policies. Ownership of the property is the fundamental thing."

Looking at the grand picture, commercial property usually reflects a country's macro economic growth. And in China, the sector is recovering thanks to favored policies for tech and financial fronts.

WANG XIAOZHOU BEIJING "Long term mechanism sort of becomes a buzz word of China's property policy. How to create a healthy and effective long effect policy, and will the most anticipated tax reforms will be discussed during the 2 sessions, we'll find out. WXZ, CGTN, BJ."