Property prices across 70 Chinese cities fell 1.2% year-on-year in February, the largest decline since the government started issuing the data in 2005, Bloomberg reported. Shenzhen suffered the most, with prices declining 15.7%. Guangzhou and Shanghai saw prices fall 4.4% and 2.4% respectively. The decrease came as developers continued to cut prices in an attempt to lure homebuyers back into the market. Transaction volume grew in February, with China Vanke, the nation’s largest developer by market value, announcing a 150% year-on-year increase in sales to US$570 million. This followed sales growth of 19% in January. Earlier in the week, Vanke reported a profit of US$589.3 million for 2008, down 16.7% year-on-year. The company also cut its target for construction work starts, but pledged to continue buying land to meet future needs.