Land prices in China rose at a slower pace for the first time in two years in the first quarter of 2014 and the trend will likely continue for another quarter, the Ministry of Land and Resources said on its website yesterday.

The average price of land pieces, for all major purposes, increased 1.89 percent quarter on quarter to 3,412 yuan (US$550) per square meter during the January-March period, a decrease of 0.17 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the China Land Surveying and Planning Institute, a research unit under the ministry which tracks land prices in 105 cities around the country.

It was the first quarter-on-quarter slowdown in land price gains registered in two years.

Among all, residential land prices climbed 2.11 percent from the previous quarter to 5,139 yuan per square meter, compared with a gain of 2.64 percent recorded in the previous three-month period. Prices of land plots designated for commercial and service purposes gained 1.73 percent quarter on quarter, a slowdown of 0.56 percentage points from the last quarter of 2013. Industrial land was the only type bucking the trend, seeing a price gain of 1.71 percent, accelerating from a rise of 1.32 percent registered in the previous quarter.

The slowdown in land price gains was mainly caused by an increasing "downward pressure" in macro-economic growth, the institute said.

As for residential land prices in particular, land prices in gateway and large cities began to stabilize at a comparatively high level amid stringent property curbs by local governments while those in smaller and tertiary cities, land prices gained at a slower pace or even declined as a result of high inventory of new homes coupled with slow population growth, according to the institute.