China's home prices ease in October

BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's home prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities eased in October, with more cities seeing a decline in home prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.

In October, 58 out of the 70 cities saw a month-on-month drop in new home sales prices, compared with 54 in September. A total of 62 cities witnessed a decrease in resale home prices, up from 61 in the previous month.

New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou -- edged down 0.1 percent month on month in October, unchanged from the prior month, according to the data.

New home prices in 31 second-tier cities decreased 0.3 percent month on month, 0.1 percentage points greater than that in September, while 35 third-tier cities saw a month-on-month decline of 0.4 percent.

Prices of resale homes in the four first-tier cities decreased 0.3 percent month on month. The prices in second-tier and third-tier cities both edged down 0.5 percent month on month in the period.

On a yearly comparison, new home prices in the four first-tier cities rose 2.6 percent in October, retreating 0.1 percentage points from the prior month, while resale home prices in these cities climbed 1.3 percent.

Upholding the stance of "housing is for living in, not for speculation," China has repeatedly underlined the importance of supporting people's essential housing needs, as well as their needs for better housing.

Efforts are also underscored to make full and good use of the policy toolkit by adopting city-specific policies to shore up the property market.

A fresh move in this direction came as Chinese authorities released a circular on Monday to allow qualified property developers to withdraw pre-sale funds.

After being assessed, developers that meet standards regarding credit risks, financial conditions, and reputations, will be eligible to receive the letters of guarantee, as per the circular.