Property values in 70 Chinese cities climbed 9.3% in August, down from 10.3% in July, Bloomberg reported. Growth missed surveyed economist forecasts by 0.7%. Prices remained flat from July. The report issued by the National Statistics Bureau weakens the argument for increased tightening measures to control real estate speculation; fear of such additiional tightening measures drove shares of property developers down over the last two days. However, housing transaction volumes rose in August – transactions in Shenzhen increased 84% month-on-month, and sales in Shanghai and Beijing rose by 31% and 23%, respectively. Analysts said that the wave of new apartments due to come onto the market should trigger a hoped-for price decline. "A slowdown in price growth won’t be enough," said property analyst Alan Jin of Samsung Securities. "What the governmnet really wants to do is bring prices down."