China's home sales growth slowed to 4.3% in July from a year earlier, marking its slowest pace of increase since March 2015, Bloomberg News reported Aug. 14.

Investment in real estate development increased 4.8% from a year earlier, down from 7.9% in June, Bloomberg calculated from National Bureau of Statistics of China data.

New starts, a leading indicator of real estate investment, fell 4.9% in July from a year earlier.

The bureau's spokesman, Mao Shengyong, said the headline figures indicate that the property market "has cooled" and that speculation has been controlled.

Property investment is expected to slow "at a gradual pace," Mao said.