China home price keeping downward in January

China's real estate market has continued a downward trend with new home prices in January registering month-on-month declines in most of surveyed cities.

Of 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed, 64 saw new home prices drop in January from the previous month, according to data released on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Meanwhile, new home prices were flat in Shanghai, Nanjing, Nanchang and Guangzhou last month, while Shenzhen and Ganzhou saw prices rise 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively from December, the NBS data showed.

For existing homes, prices in 61 cities declined in January from the previous month, while six cities recorded gains, and three saw prices flat.