The housing price in 70 major Chinese cities jumped an average of 10.5 percent in December from a year earlier, equaling the two-year-high growth rate in November, the National Development and Reform Commission said today.

Average prices of new homes rose 11.4 percent on a yearly basis after gaining 10.6 percent in November, led by Urumqi, capital city of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where prices jumped 25.3 percent in the period, the commission said on its website this morning

Beihai City in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region ranked second with 19.3 percent growth and Huizhou City in Guangdong Province was the third fastest with 19 percent growth, the commission said.

Shanghai's new home prices jumped 9.3 percent in the period from a year earlier.

The average price of second-hand homes jumped 11.4 percent in the 70 cities year on year.

Urumqi again grew the fastest at 24.2 percent, followed by Ningbo in Zhejiang Province at 16.5 percent and Wuxi in Jiangsu Province at 15.2 percent.

Shanghai grew 10.8 percent in December year on year, according to the commission.

Last year, credit to developers was tightened, supervision over land use was increased and the enforcement of tax policies was improved to cool down a real estate boom.

However, these moves have not been as effective as the central government would have liked since major cities all reported rapid growth last year.

(Shanghai Daily January 17, 2008)