A property agent waits for a client in Beijing on March 5. Real estate turnovers decreased, but prices remained high after the local government implemented a series of price curbing measures in February. [Photo / Xinhua]

The Beijing municipal government pledged to keep new home prices steady or even lower them this year in response to the Central Government's call to keep housing prices in check, local and international media outlets reported Wednesday.

Beijing is the only city that wants to drop new home prices as part of its plan to curb housing prices, China Business News reported.

About 40 additional Chinese cities announced price-curbing targets after the central government ordered local governments to submit real estate price-control targets by the end of March, the newspaper reported.

The capital city's measures are reportedly the strictest among price-curbing plans announced so far, the newspaper stated.

"Beijing's property curbs always are the most severe among peers," Jeffrey Gao, a property analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, said.

Beijing's municipal government also plans to promote government subsidized housing, especially the affordable rentals this year, according to the report.

Most cities have connected home prices with their economic and income growth rates, Bloomberg, an international news wire service, reported.

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Shenzhen and Guangzhou in southern Guangdong province announced that new home prices in their cities will be restrained at a pace lower than local economic and average disposable income growth rates, the 21st Century Business Herald in China reported, citing statements by government officials.

Year-on-year prices for new homes in Shenzhen and Guangzhou are expected to increase about 11 percent, the newspaper estimated.

Officials in the northwestern city of Xi'an said home prices will be capped at 15 percent this year, and Lanzhou, the capital city of Guansu province, set a 9 percent price ceiling, the report stated.