(Yicai) July 18 -- The number of second-hand houses listed for sale at realtors in China's four first-tier cities has fallen from recent highs, with the property market showing signs of bottoming out.

The number fell by 53,000 to 238,000 units in Shanghai, by 24,000 to 102,000 in Beijing, by 16,000 to 83,000 in Shenzhen, and by 11,000 to 77,000 in Guangzhou as of July 16 from a record high in May, according to data from 58 Anjuke Institute.

Pre-owned home listings in Hangzhou and Nanjing, which neighbor Shanghai, also dropped to 167,100 and 172,500 last month from 172,400 and 181,200 in April, according to house price monitoring app Tuboshi. 

The decline reflects the fact that recent demand for new houses is less than the number of completed transactions, indicating that newly introduced housing polices have started to take effect, a property market researcher told Yicai.

China’s central bank eased real estate market restrictions on May 17, lowering the minimum downpayment to 15 percent on first homes and 25 percent on second homes and cutting individual housing provident fund rates by 25 basis points. It also set up a CNY300 billion (USD41.3 billion) relending facility for government-subsidized housing projects.

Since then, all four first-tier cities and some lower-tier cities have adjusted their housing policies. 

The first-tier cities saw pre-owned house sales surge in June, with Shanghai hitting a three-year high of 23,900 and Beijing a 15-month peak of 14,900, while Guangzhou and Shenzhen had sales of 10,400 and 4,172, respectively, according to their own figures.

Second-hand home prices also rose in some cities. Shanghai’s edged up 0.5 percent last month from May and Beijing’s 0.2 percent, the first increases for both this year, National Bureau of Statistics data showed on July 15. Prices in Hangzhou and Nanjing gained 0.3 and 0.1 percent.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev