BEIJING — China’s home price growth slowed for the fourth straight month as demand cooled further in the biggest cities, official<br />data showed on Wednesday, signalling government curbs to defuse a bubble in the sector were starting to pay dividends.<br />In China’s biggest cities, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing prices rose 18.2 percent, 23.8 percent and 24.7 percent, respectively, from a year earlier,<br />but Shanghai and Shenzhen’s monthly pace slowed as local governments’ tightening measures knocked demand.<br />Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 0.2 percent in January from a month earlier,<br />slowing a touch from December’s 0.3 percent increase in a tempering of values seen since September.<br />Home prices rose rapidly in many Chinese cities last year, leading to restrictions on purchases and lending in more than 20 cities since October.
