November 18, Home prices fell in 34 of 70 cities monitored by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in October from a month earlier, the first time drops occurred in almost half of the key cities as the Chinese government unswervingly implements property tightening measures.

Prices stayed unchanged from September in 20 cities, according to the NBS data, which didn't count prices of social housing units.

Year-on-year, 59 cities saw slower growth in home prices, the same as in September. Around 57 of these cities recorded an annual growth of 0.5% or less, 8 more compared to September, today's government data shows.

Second-hand home prices dropped in 38 cities month-on-month, 13 more than September. None of the 70 cities saw an increase of over 0.5% in second-hand home prices during the past month.

None of the 4 biggest cities saw home price grow from September, with Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen reporting a slight decrease of 0.2%, 0.2% and 0.1% m-o-m, respectively. Prices in Beijing stayed flat.

October home prices East China's Wenzhou led the decline by jumping 4.6% m-o-m and 5.2% y-o-y. The city has been plagued by a series of bankruptcy scandals as business owners fled to avoid paying back underground lenders last month, prompting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to address the issue and pledge financial support policies.