In addition, Beijing and Shanghai relaxed their home purchase restrictions in mid-December, including by lowering the minimum down payment ratio for first and second homes.
However, these measures have failed to boost home buying sentiment as the sector has been deeply mired in a property correction since 2021.
Of the 70 cities in the home price data, 62 reported a fall in home prices, up from 59 in November.
For the home resale market, prices among 70 cities all fell year-on-year for the seventh straight month in tier-one, tier-two and tier-three cities.
Several Chinese developers, including China Evergrande Group and Country Garden, have defaulted on their offshore debt and entered into restructuring processes.
Country Garden, the country’s largest private property developer, warned this week that it expects the property market to remain weak in 2024.
Markets are eyeing more concrete property stimulus in 2024, with analysts polled by Reuters expecting the central bank to cut the one-year loan prime rate, the benchmark lending rate, by 10 basis points in the first quarter.