China's housing market grew by a slightly slower pace in the first 10 months of this year, data released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

From January to October, sales of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 18 percent year on year to 5.47 trillion yuan (US$859 billion), slightly slower from the 18.2 percent growth in the first three quarters, the bureau said in a statement.

The area of homes sold climbed 7.9 percent from the same period a year ago to 837 million square meters, easing from an 8.2 percent gain in the January-September period.

"The retreat in buyers' momentum was mainly confined to non-core cities while major cities continued to maintain a rather unchanged growth rate compared with the first nine months," said Li Jiao, a senior statistician at the bureau. "Secondly, we've seen a notable decelerating pace of growth particularly in the large-size house category around the country, which refers to homes exceeding 144 square meters."

Lu Qilin, director of research at Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co, said: "Home purchases by both value and area have entered a mild growth trajectory in September and October, possibly indicating an end to robust increases."

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