New home prices in 36 major Chinese cities continued to climb month on month in May despite the government’s attempt to cool the property market, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said. The average price was CNY8,479 per square meter in May, up 0.81% from April. However, the May growth rate in those 36 major cities was 2.65 percentage points lower than the April figure. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), home prices in 70 large and medium-sized Chinese cities rose 12.4% year on year in May. To rein in prices, the Chinese government has issued a series of measures, including raising mortgage rates and tightening down-payment requirements for second-home purchases. Property prices are expected to fall between 15% and 20% in the last quarter of this year, according to a report by Credit Suisse. “The fate of the Chinese economy for the rest of this year depends largely on the housing market,” Tao Dong, Chief Economist of Asia (excluding Japan) at Credit Suisse, said in Shanghai. The government’s cooling measures have led to a strong “wait-and-see” sentiment among sellers and buyers.