Ｈｏｕｓｉｎｇ Ｐｒｉｃｅｓ Ｇｒｏｗ ａｔ Ｓｌｏｗｅｒ Ｐａｃｅ

China's housing price growth continued to slow inOctober， traditionally one of the hottest sales monthsof the year， as a result of the government's regulatorymeasures. Nationwide， residential property prices rose 0.5 % lastmonth， compared with a 0.6% gain in September and a 0.7%increase in August， according to a survey by the national devel-opment and reform commission and national bureau of statistics.Shanghai， which led the price drop in September， remained onthe list of the five cities that recorded the biggest drop last month.

Prices of newly launched projects and secondhand housesin Shanghai both dropped 1.2% in October compared to theprevious month， according to the survey. The decline rate wasthe same as in September. The transaction volume in the cityremained low at about 400 units per day last month， comparedto the peak of 700 units a day last year. Analyst said numberswill intensify the stalemate betweenbuyers and sellers. \"Buyers now don'twant to buy at current prices in antici-pation of further declines， but sellersdon't want to drop their prices as theyare betting there is rigid demand in themarket.\" said Lin Kai， an analyst withSoufun.com， one of the major onlinereal estate services companies. \"Al-though the price has dropped a littlebit， it still is beyond my affordability，\"said Sun Kai， a 26-year-old Shang-hai office worker who plans to pur-chase an apartment before getting mar-ried next year.

Rocketing prices in Shanghai inthe past two years has made it increas-ingly difficult for university graduatesand first-time home buyers to afford ahouse.

The central government increasedmortgage rates， especially for luxury homes， and raised lending rates toproperty developers in March to reinin speculation.

Shanghai started levying a tax inJune on homes sold in less than a yearafter purchase to drive speculative capital out of the market. These mea-sures have had an impact - even put-ting some real estate companies into a dilemma when launching newprojects. Hong kong-listed Shanghai Forte Land Co， one of the city's big-gest developers， plans to launch a villaproject in Beiqiao Town at the end ofthis month. But it remains tight-lippedon prices .