Despite a slight increase in property deals, the estate market in this southern city kept going downhill last month as the new houses' average price dipped to its lowest this year.

The average unit price for new properties dropped to 9,122 yuan per square meter in July, down by 447 yuan, or 4.7 percent compared with June, according to the Guangzhou Land Resources and Property Management Bureau.

It was also a big drop by 21 percent compared with last October, when the price for new commercial apartments hit a record high of 11,574 yuan per square meter.

According to the housing authority, the price of nine out of 13 big property projects, each of which saw more than 3,500 sq m in deals last month, continued to fall.

In the downtown Yuexiu district, the price saw the biggest drop by 19.5 percent, or 2,929 yuan per square meter last month compared with June.

Sales of new properties also dropped from 666,400 sq m in June to 605,600 sq m last month.

However, the turnover was much higher than early February, when it was just 231,200 sq m.

"It shows that sales of new houses are picking up now thanks to the slowdown in prices," said Wu Dingjin, general manager of the Poly Real Estate Agent Co Ltd.

According to Wu, the new properties' average price is expected to drop to 9,000-9,100 yuan in the second half of this year.

"The coming two months will be a key period for property companies to maintain their businesses as September and October are usually the golden months for them," said Wu, adding that there will be 50,000 more new units available in the second half.

Wu attributed the price fall partly to introduction of so-called economic and affordable housing projects in the local market, which were co-built by government and property enterprises.

"The price of the affordable buildings is much lower than commercial ones. In the last two months, many of such properties were on sale," Wu said.

In July, deals of new economic and affordable buildings reached 94,500 sq m last month, accounting for nearly 15.6 percent of the total.

Meanwhile, the average price for second-hand houses in the city also fell by 6 percent last month compared with June, hitting a record low of 4,257 yuan per square meter.

Editor: Yan