1st LD: China home prices fall in December

China's real estate market has extended a sluggish trend with new home prices in December registering month-on-month declines in a majority of surveyed cities.

Of 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed, 66 saw new home prices drop in December from the previous month, according to data released on Sunday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Meanwhile, new home prices were flat in the three cities of Zhengzhou, Wuhan, and Ganzhou last month, while Shenzhen saw price rise 1.2 percent from November, the NBS data showed.

For existing homes, prices in 60 cities fell in December from the previous month, while eight cities recorded gains, with first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou seeing prices gain 0.2 percent, 0.4 percent, and 0.2 percent, respectively. Cities of Nanjing and Urumqi were flat in price growth, the data showed.

On a year-on-year basis, 68 cities saw new home prices decline in December. Meanwhile, 67 cities reported price drops for existing homes.

Despite widespread price drops, the rates of decline on a monthly basis have narrowed for both new homes and existing homes, according to analysts.

"On average, prices of new homes and existing homes in December in the 70 cities fell 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent respectively from a month ago," said NBS statistician Liu Jianwei.

However, the rates of price declines were down both by 0.2 percentage point compared to November, Liu said. Endi