Housing prices in 70 major Chinese cities rose 6.3 percent in September over the same period last year, and the growth rate was 0.8 percentage points lower than that in August.

A report jointly released on Wednesday by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics showed prices of newly-built residential housing rose 11.4 percent in Xiamen, 10.6 percent in Shenzhen, 10.3 percent in Beijing, 10 percent in Fuzhou, 8.9 percent in Chengdu and 8.7 percent in Guangzhou.

But the housing prices in Shanghai dropped by 2.3 percent in September.

From July to September, the report said, housing prices in the 70 major cities rose 6.7 percent year on year, with the growth rate of Shenzhen up 12.3 percent, Beijing up 10.9 percent, Xiamen up 10 percent, while that of Shanghai fell by 2.3 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2006)