1st Ld: China home prices stabilizing after curb policies

China's red-hot property market in major cities has continued to stabilize after authorities took a series of measures to contain prices, according to an official survey Monday.

Of 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed, 55 saw prices for new residential housing climb month on month in November, down from 62 in October, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In Beijing, new residential home prices stayed unchanged from a month earlier, while in Shanghai prices dipped 0.1 percent.

Year on year, home prices in the two cities have risen 28.9 percent and 34.8 percent, respectively.

According to the NBS, new residential home prices in first-tier cities edged up 0.1 percent in November on a monthly basis, retreating 0.4 percentage points from the growth seen in October.

To better reflect market changes, the NBS separately released data for the latter half of November, which showed 9 out of 15 first-tier and major second-tier cities reported month-on-month price drops during the period.

"The data shows a sharp cooling in the 15 cities and a notable stabilization in prices due to the government's differentiated control policies," said NBS statistician Liu Jianwei.

Since October, dozens of Chinese cities have announced measures, including purchase limits and tightened mortgage restrictions, to prevent prices from rising out of control. Endi