China's October home prices stable on cooling measures

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China's October home prices in major cities remained stable as local governments continued to take cooling measures, data showed Thursday.

Prices of new commercial homes in four first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, remained flat compared with the previous month, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on home prices of China's 70 cities.

Prices of new and existing homes in 31 second-tier cities increased at a slower pace compared with a month earlier, while prices of new commercial homes and existing homes in 35 third-tier cities both saw a faster growth rate.

Local governments will continue to employ targeted measures based on their own conditions, and help create a rational real estate market, said Liu Jianwei, senior statistician of NBS.

Prices of existing homes fall in October

The obvious change in October was the price fall of existing homes in China's 70 cities. A total of 14 cities saw a price fall of existing homes, with Xiamen down by 0.9 percent, the biggest cut, said Zhang Dawei, a property analyst of Centaline Property.

"After the real estate market rose to the peak in August, the so-called 'golden September and silver October' didn't happen," said Zhang. "There would be more cities cutting prices and the prices of existing homes are expected to fall in the coming months."