(Yicai Global) June 22 -- Wuhan has further eased restrictions on home purchases, allowing residents to buy up to four housing units in central districts of the largest city in central China.

Though no official document on the matter had been issued as yet, registered residents can buy as many as three apartment units, a buyer said they had been told, while a family with two or more minors or with grandparents living in the city, can buy up to four units. Under the city’s previous policy, such families already qualified to buy as many as three.

Wuhan has eased the limits several times this year to revive the local property market. Last month, the cost of a new home in the city fell for a fourth straight month, dipping 1.8 percent from a year earlier, while pre-owned home prices fell for a ninth month in a row, dropping 2.7 percent, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The city had more than 200,000 second-hand homes up for sale as of June 14, which was 70,000 more than in late March, data from Chinese real estate agency Lianjia showed.

From January to May, Wuhan registered sales contracts for 45,087 new homes, covering an area of over 5 million square meters, half of the area of a year ago, per statistics the city’s housing bureau released on June 15.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione