BEIJING -- Loans to China's real estate sector rose at a slower pace in the first three quarters as the housing market cooled, data from the central bank showed Tuesday.

At the end of September, financial institutions in China had lent 16.7 trillion yuan ($2.73 trillion) to the property sector, up 18.2 percent year on year, 1 percentage point slower than the pace at the end of June, according to a report released by the People's Bank of China.

Outstanding loans for real estate development amounted to 5.39 trillion yuan at the end of last month, while loans for individual home purchases increased 17.5 percent to 11.1 trillion yuan, down 0.9 percentage points from the end of June.

China's property market has been cooling since the beginning of the year.

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that commercial housing sales in term of floor space dropped 8.6 percent in the first nine months, widening by 0.3 percentage points from the first eight months.

Prices for new homes in 69 out of 70 major Chinese cities dropped month on month in September, compared with 68 cities in August.

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