A view in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province Photo: IC

China's real estate market remained stable in September, with average prices of new commercial houses rising 0.53 percent from the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.

The data are based on changes in housing prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities, of which the average new housing price rose 8.6 percent on a yearly basis, compared with the previous month's 9.1 percent. 

"The real estate market remained stable in September," said Kong Peng, chief statistician with the NBS.

Prices of 53 new residential buildings rose month-on-month in September, down from 55 in the previous month. The prices of 69 new residential buildings rose on a yearly basis, down from 70 in August.

Kong noted that the sales price of new commercial housing rose slightly compared with the previous month, while that of second hand housing was basically flat.

Sales prices of new buildings in four first-tier cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - rose 0.4 percent month-on-month. 

The sales prices of new homes in 31 second-tier cities rose 0.6 percent month-on-month, and 0.8 percent month-on-month in 35 third-tier cities. 

"Generally speaking, the price of second hand housing in second-tier cities saw the most obvious cooling, which was related to continuous policy control in second-tier cities and the slight increase in the size of potential new housing," Yan Yuejin, research director at the E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times on Monday.

The price of second hand housing in the first-tier cities rose 0.3 percent on a monthly basis, and 0.2 percent month-on-month in 31 second-tier cities, both figures unchanged from the previous month. Resold-housing prices rose 0.7 percent in 35 third-tier cities, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.

It is impossible for the price increase in second hand housing to rise further due to previous housing policies that cool the market and lower the expectations of homeowners, making the resold-housing price relatively flat, according to Yan. 

According to the housing price index, the sales price index of second hand housing in 70 cities nationwide rose 0.3 percent month-on-month and 4.6 percent year-on-year in September. 

Month-on-month growth of second hand housing was flat compared with August, while year-on-year growth narrowed. Both figures indicate that the second hand housing market is no longer strong, said Yan.