Housing prices in 70 large-and medium-sized Chinese cities fell 0.4 percent year-on-year in December, signaling the first such drop since the government issued the figure in July 2005, Xinhua reported.
It was down 0.5 percent compared with the previous month, according to a joint statement issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics.
In November, property prices rose only 0.2 percent from a year earlier, presenting the lowest growth rate in the past three years.
About one third of the cities showed a year-on-year price drop, with southern Shenzhen leading the downward trend by a 18.1 percent dip. Housing prices in cities like Guangzhou, Nanjing and Chongqing all fell more than 5 percent.
Meanwhile, the prices in 50 cities dropped in December compared with the previous month. Southern Guangzhou led the drop by 3.1 percent.