BEIJING - Investment in China's property sector, once a major growth engine, continued to slow in the first three quarters of this year, official data showed on Monday.

Real estate investment rose 2.6 percent year on year to 7.05 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) from Jan to Sept, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced.

The growth was 0.9 percentage point slower than in the first eight months and down by 2 percentage points from that in the first half.

Investment in residential housing, which accounts for about two-thirds of total property investment, climbed 1.7 percent from a year earlier, compared with a growth of 2.3 percent in the first eight months and 2.8 percent in the first half.

New housing construction stood at 1.15 billion square meters, down 12.6 percent year on year, with construction of new residential houses dropping 13.5 percent by area.

Sales of residential and commercial property went up 15.3 percent year on year to 5.7 trillion yuan, with the growth rate unchanged from that recorded in the first eight months, the NBS data showed.

China's property market took a downturn in 2014 due to weak demand and a surplus of unsold homes. The cooling has continued into 2015, with both sales and prices falling and investment slowing.

The country has moved to combat the slowdown, easing down payment requirements for home purchases, while some local governments have rolled back their restrictions on home purchases.