China new-home price data: Worst is over for country's property sector

The property downturn in China, which has contributed largely to the world's second-largest economy's recent growth slowdown, is apparently bottoming out.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that new-home prices in the country's major 70 cities remained the same in April on a monthly basis.

However, prices fell for the eighth consecutive month on a year-on-year basis, falling by 6.1% in April, according to Reuters' calculations of data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

New-home prices in Beijing fell 3.2% year over year in April, compared to a 3.7% drop in March. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.7% in the capital city.

In Shanghai, prices declined 4.7% from the previous year, while they were up 0.6% from the previous month.

In the first four months of 2014, China's real estate investment growth continued to slow down to the lowest since May 2009, primarily due to lower investment in new construction.

"Aggregate prices remain under (modest) downward pressure, but the signs of healing broadened further in April to a larger sample of non-tier 1 cities, while tier-1 prices are now unambiguously rising again," a note from Westpac Global Economics said, commenting on the data.

"This provides further indication that the overall market has left the very worst behind it."

Property sector accounts for about 15% of China's economy, and an earlier boom in the sector helped the country post double-digit growth rates for almost three decades.

However, the housing sector has been slowing in recent years due to a number of curbs from the central government and oversupply.

In order to rejuvenate the sector as well as the economy, Chinese authorities have recently unveiled a number of measures, including a cut in interest rates and reserve requirements for banks. That came in addition to eased tax rules and easier down payment requirements on second homes announced earlier.