BEIJING (Reuters – China’s property market troubles worsened November amid weaker demand for larger cities. A private-sector survey revealed Wednesday that prices fell in both new and resale houses.

In recent months the pace of improvement in the property sector has been slowing. This is due to a tightening regulatory environment and growing liquidity crises that have effected some of the most debtor developers in the country.

The November decline in new home prices was 0.04% compared to October’s 0.09% increase, according the China Index Academy. This data comes from one of China’s most respected independent real-estate research organizations.

It was the first drop in the survey since 2015.

Only 30% of the 100 largest cities report monthly price hikes for new properties.

Month-on-month prices in the resale housing market dropped 0.08%, which is a significant improvement on October’s 0.04% decline.

According to official data, October saw a drop in prices for new houses, which was the first decrease since March 2015. There were also falling resale values in many cities and a decline in construction starts.

Cao Jingjing (research director of the academy) stated that the trend towards a decline in the real estate market is likely to continue in the future.

Rapidly declining conditions in the real estate sector has led to speculation about whether policymakers will relax some restrictions and reduce interest rates.

The consensus is that policymakers will continue to be firm, but they may make some adjustments in the future to aid genuine homebuyers.

Some banks expedited disbursement for approved mortgages, while others received instructions to extend more loans to property developers.

Last week, Chengdu in southwest China took steps to make sure developers received funds from the sale of properties. It also made fresh loans. This was the first Chinese city to take action to alleviate a liquidity crisis.

According to data from the Academy Survey, monthly home prices dropped by 0.1% and 2.02% respectively in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities, but rose by 0.01%, and 0.09%, in October.

Cao from the Academy said that property regulations are likely to be fine-tuned.

Oxford Economics predicted that property declines would continue through the second half of 2022, according to a note.