High-rises stand in the riverside area in Shanghai's Lujiazui area. Individual mortgage loans in Shanghai grew the slowest in a year in June as the central government takes steps to curb housing speculation.

IN their 13th consecutive month of year-on-year growth, China's urban property prices continued to rise in June, although at a slower pace.

Real estate prices in 70 major cities on the Chinese mainland climbed 11.4 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday on its website.

That compared with 12.4 percent growth in May and 12.8 percent in April. The April growth was the biggest year-on-year gain since July 2005, when the bureau doubled the number of cities it was tracking.

"The growth indicated that housing prices around the country are still yet to drop in a massive scale, though government efforts to curb housing speculation have been taking some effect since mid-April, a good explanation for a decelerated growth," said Shao Minghao, a research head at Shanghai Hanyu Property Consulting Co Ltd, a major realtor chain.

"If the central government continues to take a tough stance and local governments are able to make full execution of those rein-in policies, a clear downward trend should be expected."

Across the country, prices of new homes jumped 14.1 percent and existing homes rose 7.7 percent year on year in June. In Shanghai, they rose 9.5 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively.

In Shanghai, sales of new homes, as measured by volume, plunged 56 percent to 3.57 million square meters during the first half of this year amid significantly damped buyer sentiment.

The six-month volume, excluding housing designated for relocated residents under urban redevelopment plans, was the lowest on record in the past five years, according to Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co, which has tracked the new home market since 2006.

However, home price remained high despite slashed volume. Between January and June, new homes in Shanghai were sold at an average price of 21,008 yuan (US$3,102) per square meter, compared with 14,198 yuan per square meter in the same period of last year, Uwin statistics showed.

In one of its most iron-fisted policies to cool down the country's overheated housing market, China raised the down-payment requirement on second-home mortgages to at least 50 percent from 40 percent in mid April. The State Council also issued a notice saying banks should suspend housing credit to third or more home buyers.

In the latest effort, the country's housing and lending regulators and the central bank announced that banks should consider both the mortgage and home purchase records of people applying for second mortgages, the first time China has included home ownership records in determining second home mortgages.