Land available for construction shrunk last year due to the economic slowdown, cooling of the property market and adjustment of land supply, the pricing authority said on Wednesday.

Real estate developers reduced purchases and prices paid for commercial and residential building land saw slower growth than in 2013, said Zhao Song, head of the China Land Surveying and Planning Institute, under the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The price of land for commercial construction fell by 3.9 percent in 2014 from a year earlier and the price for residential land reduced by 4.85 percent, according to a report by the institute. The first quarter of this year has seen the decline continue, the report said.

Among 105 cities in the report, first-tier ones– Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - have seen a recovery in first quarter deals, it said, estimating that growth in some cities would continue during the second quarter.