CHINA'S urban property prices kept climbing in September, though at a slower pace thanks to the central government's rein-in measures.

Real estate prices in 70 major cities on the Chinese mainland rose 9.1 percent year on year last month, the 16th straight month of rising prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday on its website.

The September rise, down from a growth of 9.3 percent in August, marked the fifth straight month that growth has slowed, year on year.

On a month-on-month basis, home prices rose in September by 0.5 percent.

"The year-on-year price growth at a decelerated rate since May indicated that the country's tightening policies since April have taken some effect, though not up to expectation," said Lu Zhengwei, an Industrial Bank senioreconomist, yesterday.

"What counts more is the month-on-month indicator and it showed that prices still stayed firm," Lu said.

"End-users and investors dashed to make a buy and bolster prices as they didn't see any sharp price correction. That's why authorities hit it harder with the new tightening at the end of September."

In April, China announced "tough" moves to curb housing speculation, such as putting limits on loans for buyers of a second property. But the moves had little effect. So in a new round, the State Council, or China's cabinet, on September 29 ordered banks to stop providing mortgages to buyers of third homes. Individuals buying first homes must plunk down at least 30 percent of total prices, instead of down payments of 20 percent.

And in Shanghai, Beijing and other big cities, a family is confined to buying just one home beyond any they already own.

Analysts said it will take time to see any effects from the latest moves.

"The tight policy will remain for a long time and data for the coming months will show whether the new bullets hit the target or not," said Zhang Qi, a Haitong Securities Co analyst. "If not, tighter measures like property tax may come later."

Across the country, prices of new homes jumped 11.3 percent and existing-home prices jumped 6.2 percent in September from a year earlier.

In September, the average price for new apartments in Shanghai - excluding those for residents relocated by urban redevelopment projects - was 20,011 yuan (US$3,009) per square meter, compared with per-capita yearly disposable income of around 28,000 yuan in 2009.

In an online survey taken in September, 86 percent of respondents said the restrictive housing policies are ineffective and expected to see more measures to rein in the galloping price of real estate.

The People's Daily survey, answered by more than 46,000 people, showed that 86 percent of respondents said the policies started in April were not properly implemented; 89 percent said supervision is problematic; and 86 percent questioned the reliability of the housing data.

• estate [i´steit] n.财产；庄园；等级 (初中英语单词)
• bureau [´bjuərəu] n.局；编辑部；事务所 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• industrial [in´dʌstriəl] a.工业的，产业的 (初中英语单词)
• cabinet [´kæbinit] n.橱，柜；内阁 (初中英语单词)
• income [´inkʌm] n.收入，所得 (初中英语单词)
• survey [´sə:vei] vt.&n.俯瞰；审视；测量 (初中英语单词)
• properly [´prɔpəli] ad.适当地；严格地 (初中英语单词)
• senior [´si:niə] a.年长的 n.前辈 (高中英语单词)
• speculation [,spekju´leiʃən] n.思索，推测；投机 (高中英语单词)
• supervision [,su:pə´viʒən, ,sju:-] n.管理；监督 (高中英语单词)
• mainland [´meinlənd] n.大陆；本土 (英语四级单词)
• statistics [stə´tistiks] n.统计学；统计 (英语四级单词)
• economist [i´kɔnəmist] n.经济学家；节俭的人 (英语四级单词)
• correction [kə´rekʃən] n.改正，纠正，修改 (英语四级单词)
• policy [´pɔlisi] n.政策；权谋；保险单 (英语四级单词)
• yearly [´jiəli] a.每年的；一年间的 (英语四级单词)
• august [ɔ:´gʌst] a.尊严的；威严的 (英语六级单词)