Over 50% of Chinese worried by 'too high' house prices

BEIJING -- More than half of Chinese citizens surveyed said homes were too expensive for them, in the latest national poll by the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

The survey showed that 58.8 percent of 20,000 people surveyed in 50 cities believe current home prices were "too high to accept" in the fourth quarter, down 0.7 percentage point from the previous quarter.

The property market cooled in 2014, with authorities loosening controls on purchases, mortgage rules and interest rates to avoid an even sharper slowdown. Home prices - especially in large cities - are still too high for most new graduates.

In the fourth quarter, potential "savers" still outnumbered potential "investors" by 44.9 percent to 36.4 percent, but those who expected to invest more rose by 0.4 percentage point while savers fell 1.1 percentage points respectively from the previous quarter.

The most popular investments remained wealth management products, bonds and the manufacturing industry.

Of urban residents, 52.9 percent considered current prices "too high" , down 1.1 percentage points, as the consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, edged up 1.4 percent year on year in November, the slowest increase since November 2009.