Property prices increase in October

Despite continued curbing policies, more cities saw a rise in house prices in October than in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Sunday, and this trend of slight growth is likely to continue as policymakers are reluctant to make big changes that might destabilize the economy, market analysts said Sunday.

Among 70 major cities tracked by the NBS, 17 saw price falls in October compared with 24 in September. And housing prices in 35 of the 70 cities rose in October, four more cities than in September, though the average price rise was less than 0.5 percent, the NBS said in a statement on its website.

The official statistics show that prices of new homes in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen increased in October from September, and are 2.8, 4.7 and 2.6 percent higher, respectively, than in the same period of 2010, the year when policymakers began setting restrictions on house purchases to cool the overheating real estate market.

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