Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao signaled Sunday that the government will not alter its property curbs until home prices drop, Phoenix TV reported.

“What I am stressing here is that the series of steps taken to curb prices in the real estate sector would never be allowed to waver,” Wen was quoted telling a meeting in St Petersburg Sunday, calling it a “national policy.”

“Our target is to let the housing price decline to a reasonable level,” said Wen.

Wen also noted that the state revenue this year, which stood at about 10 trillion yuan, would be used for the nation’s people, including an affordable homes project for the poor.

“We will secure the construction of 10 million units of affordable homes this year, which will inevitably reduce pressures on prices,” Wen said.

Housing prices are, as a whole, still gridlocked, but signs of loosening have emerged in the recent month, Wen added.

Premier Wen arrived in St Petersburg, Russia Sunday afternoon to attend the 10th meeting of prime ministers of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) slated for Monday.

Volumes of home transactions have hit a three-year low in Beijing Guangzhou, Shanghai and other first-tier cities. Statistics show that the September prices of newly built houses in 17 of 70 big and middle-sized cities nationwide declined from August and prices have stopped rising in the majority of the other city.