China's housing prices remain stable in September

BEIJING -- China's housing market remained generally stable in September, with slight month-on-month growth in home prices in major cities, official data showed on Tuesday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- rose by 0.4 percent month-on-month in September, down 0.2 percentage points from a month earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

On a monthly basis, new home prices edged up 0.3 percent in 31 second-tier cities, and rose 0.5 percent in 35 third-tier cities.

Prices of resold homes in first-tier cities edged up 0.9 percent month-on-month in September, with growth slowing 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. Second-tier cities saw slower month-on-month growth in their resold home prices, and the price rise in third-tier cities remained unchanged from the previous month at 0.6 percent.

In September, local governments continued to maintain the principle that "housing is for living in, not for speculation," and adopted measures to keep housing prices and market expectations stable, said Sheng Guoqing, a senior NBS statistician.

The latest NBS data shows the country's property investment in the first nine months jumped 5.6 percent year-on-year, with investment in residential property rising 6.1 percent.