China will unswervingly maintain its regulation policies on the property market next year for a return of housing prices to a reasonable level, according decisions made at the country's central economic work conference.

A statement, released on Dec. 14 after the annual conference, said the country will speed up the construction of ordinary commercial residential housing to increase the effective supply and promote the healthy development of the property market.

The statement also said that China will push forward the trials of property tax reform.

China introduced the property-tax trials in Shanghai and Chongqing at the beginning of the year as part of its efforts to curb skyrocketing home prices and contain asset bubbles.

Since April 2010, China has imposed a raft of measures aiming to calm property prices. They include higher down payments, limits on the number of houses that people can own, the introduction of a property tax in some cities, and the construction of low-income housing.

The statement said China should appropriately handle the investment and financing, construction, operation and management of affordable housing projects, and progressively solve housing problems for low-income urban residents, newly-employed workers and migrant workers from rural areas.

The government has vowed to build 36 million units over the next five years in an effort to give more mid- and low-income households access to housing and stabilize runaway property prices, with 10 million units planned for both 2011 and 2012.

China's housing authorities said on Nov. 10 that the country has already met this year's goal of starting the construction of 10 million units.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang said in late November that the government should stick to its tightening measures over the property market and consolidate the regulative results it had achieved.

"The construction of affordable homes will help curb excessive price rises and fuel urbanization, which will in turn unleash consumption and investment potential and push the development of related industries," Li said.

More cities posted monthly home-price declines in October following the government's campaign to calm the property market.

In October, 34 cities in a statistical pool of 70 major cities saw declines in new home prices from September, compared with 17 in September, data with the National Bureau of Statistics showed.