The price of residential apartments in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, slumped 18.03 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The city suffered the largest fall in the in the country in the past quarter.

Businessmen from the city, one of China's wealthiest, are well known for their speculative activities in various sectors, especially the property market.

China tightened its curbs on the property sector in 2010, when house prices rose far beyond the reach of average wage earners.

"Compared with the housing price for 2009 and 2010, when it rose to the peak of about 60,000 yuan per square meter for certain luxurious apartments, the average price of those is now about 35,000 yuan, a decrease of nearly 50 percent," said Ding Yi, a developer of luxury homes in Wenzhou.

Ding added that the cooling property market in Wenzhou had severely affected the average price of residences after investors drove them up over the past two years.

"Demand for new apartments was quite low for the whole year although prices dropped rapidly," said Zheng Jian, a salesman at a property agency in Wenzhou.

Zheng added that the previous price of certain luxurious properties had been hyped up to the top by the investors and is now slowly heading to the bottom.

yuran@chinadaily.com.cn