Falling house prices and strict supervision by authorities contributed to the drop in illegal land use cases in the first quarter of the year, experts said.

There were 9,462 illegal land use cases from January to March, inspectors found. The number was down by 3.7 percent year-on-year.

The total area of land being used illegally amounted to 3,200 hectares, a 35 percent drop on a yearly basis, Wang Ling, deputy director of the law enforcement and supervision bureau under the Ministry of Land and Resources, said on Wednesday at a news conference.