House sales prices in August in 70 major Chinese cities rose by 5.5 percent over the same period last year, according to figures released Wednesday.

The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics said a report that the growth rate dropped 0.2 percentage points from July.

Prices of newly-built residential housing in August rose by 7.1 percent year on year, 0.4 percentage points higher than the growth rate the previous month.

The sales prices of newly-built homes in Shenzhen rose 12.8 percent, in Beijing 11.4 percent and Xiamen up 11.4 percent.

But the sales prices of new homes in Shanghai dropped 2.2 percent, making it the only city out of the 70 to experience a fall in housing prices in August.

The sales prices of used homes in August rose 4.5 percent over the same period last year, up 0.5 percentage points from July, and the prices of non-residential housing rose 3.1 percent over the same period last year, down 1.8 percentage points from last month.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2006)