February 20 -- Prices of commercial homes stopped gaining on a monthly basis in any of the 70 major cities in January, and the index for existing home prices fell for the first time, reports 163.com, citing the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to the NBS, a total of 48 cities posted month-on-month drops in home prices, with prices unchanged in the remaining 22 cities.

The cities of Wenzhou, Changsha, Nanjing, Changde, and Yantai posted relatively large month-on-month falls in home prices.

Home prices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen continued to fall in January, with price declines narrowing in the the latter three cities.

Compared with the same month in 2011, home prices fell in 15 of the 70 cities, an addition of six from December. Wenzhou and Yueyang recorded eight percent and 4.6 percent year-on-year drops in new home prices.

The year-on-year rate of home prices increases in 50 cities fell in January, a reduction of five cities from December.

First-tier cities which implemented the most restrictive policies led the declines in home prices, with home prices in these cities falling 0.2 percent from December.

The 40 cities which rolled out purchase restrictions recorded monthly home price declines of 0.17 percent, while home prices in cities with no such limitations fell 0.12 percent.

A total of 54 cities recorded month-on-month drops in the prices of existing homes, and prices were unchanged in 11 cities.

The prices of existing homes in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen all fell month-on-month, with Beijing posting the greatest drop of 0.9 percent, followed by Shenzhen’s 0.8 percent decline.

According to data, leading real estate developers, such as China Vanke (000002,200002) and Poly Real Estate (600048) posted  more than 30 percent year-on-year drops in transactions in January, with Gemdale Corporation (600383) recording a 76 percent decline.

The average transaction price recorded by Evergrande Real Estate (3333.HK) in January was 5,936 yuan per square meter, down from the 2011 average of 6,590 yuan.