Chinese urbanites have become less satisfied about their income and less confident about their future earnings, with their interest in buying homes falling to a 10-year low, the People's Bank of China said on Tuesday.

The central bank held a survey in the third quarter in 50 cities, with a panel of 20,000 people.

The survey found that only 13.3 percent of the respondents intended to buy homes in the coming three months, down 1.8 percentage points from the previous quarter or 2.8 percentage points from the year-earlier level. The proportion was the lowest since 1999 when the quarterly survey began.

In such first-tier cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou, the proportion was less than 10 percent, lower than the national average.

According to the survey, 15.3 percent of those questioned said they were happy about their income, 2 percentage points lower than the previous quarter or 5.7 percentage points lower than the third quarter of last year.

The total confident about their future income was 19.3 percent, down one percentage point from a quarter earlier, or 4.5 percentage points from a year earlier. Both the indicators fell to the lowest since 2006.

Urbanites' interest in investment ebbed upon lackluster capital markets. Only 8.2 percent of the panel was willing to buy stocks and mutual funds, falling 8.6 percentage points from the previous quarter or 36.1 percentage points from a year ago.

The survey found 43.8 percent of the panel was more willing to deposit their money in banks, and 55.3 percent regarded current interest rates for savings deposits as moderate.

(Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2008)