HOUSING transactions fell more than 20 percent in volume and value in China in October as the government maintained its austerity measures to curb increasing residential prices for the ninth consecutive month.

The new residential sales dropped 26.8 percent from September to 73.67 million square meters across the country and their value plunged nearly 25 percent to 372.3 billion yuan (US$58.9 billion) last month, according to calculations based on data released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Between January and October, new residential sales countrywide climbed 9 percent year on year to 709.71 million square meters and were worth 3.64 trillion yuan, up 16.3 percent on an annual basis, the bureau said.

Song Huiyong, research director at Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Ltd, said: "Nationwide, expectations of home buyers for housing prices have generally changed as the central government repeatedly expressed its determination to rein in speculation.

"A wait-and-see sentiment has extended to more second and third-tier cities from major ones such as Beijing and Shanghai."

In Shanghai, for example, new home sales dropped 19.6 percent on a monthly basis to 457,000 square meters in October, according to Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co.

The statistics bureau also reported investment in residential developments rose 34.3 percent to 3.58 trillion yuan in the first 10 months of this year from a year earlier, slowing from an increase of 35.2 percent seen in the first nine months.

Meanwhile, home prices tumbled for the second month in October nationwide, with more than half of the cities tracked posting declines, according to a latest monthly research by the China Index Academy.