Property prices in 70 major Chinese cities rose 8.6 percent year on year in October, the lowest year-on-year increase this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

The growth rate has eased for six consecutive months from the peak in April at 12.8 percent after the government stepped up controls to curb prices since April.

October's rise was down from the 9.1-percent increase in September. However, NBS data showed that home prices rose 0.2 percent from September, underscoring the need to keep discouraging speculation and prevent asset bubbles.

New home prices climbed 10.6 percent year on year in October, and are 0.3 percent higher than September. Prices for second-hand homes rose 5.9 percent from a year earlier and 0.1 percent from September.

Property sales volume fell by 11.2 percent from a month earlier to 92.78 million square meters in October, and the value dropped 7.7 percent to 507.6 billion yuan (US$74.42 billion).

Property investment rose 37 percent year on year to 455.8 billion yuan in October. That brought the combined investment in the first 10 months to 3.81 trillion yuan, up 36.5 percent year on year.

The government, which is considering introducing a property tax, has introduced a raft of measures to crack down on property speculation and rein in home prices, including suspending mortgage loans for third home purchases and raising down-payments.

The country's central bank, in a surprise move last month, announced the first rise in interest rates for almost three years, in a move to tame inflation and surging home prices.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2010)