China's troubled property market ended last year with the worst declines in new home prices in nearly nine years, despite government efforts to prop up the sector that was once a key driver of the world's second largest economy. 

New home prices in December logged their steepest drop since February 2015, while property sales measured by floor area fell 23% in December from a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

At the same time, property investment by developers in December fell year-on-year at the fastest clip since at least 2000, according to Reuters calculations based on NBS data. Overall, for 2023, property investment dropped 9.6%, roughly the same as the slide in 2022.

The sustained downturn in the sector that accounts for around a quarter of China's economy could drag on the country's broader recovery and heap pressure on policymakers to roll out fresh support.

Authorities have already tried propping up the sector with measures including increasing the central bank's pledged supplementary lending (PSL) facility in December to help fund property and infrastructure projects.

In addition, Beijing and Shanghai relaxed their home purchase restrictions in mid-December, including by lowering the minimum down payment ratio for first and second homes.