Property transactions in Hong Kong fell by 19% in September when compared to August, indicating a slowdown in the citys property market, after new government measures were introduced aimed at reining in rapidly rising home prices.

The Land Registry recorded a total of 13,749 transactions for the month, down from 16,946 in August, and down 4.8% from 14,437 a year earlier.

In August, the HK government auctioned a number of additional sites for residential development as part of its efforts to increase land supply to cool the local property market, where prices have risen 15% so far this year following a 29% jump in 2009.

It also capped mortgages for homes valued at 12m Hong Kong dollars (US$1.55m) or more at 60% of their value. It had previously capped mortgages at that level for homes valued at HK$20m or more.

The government has held seven land auctions so far for the fiscal year ending March 2011, and plans to sell another site later in October, in one of the most active land auction schedules in recent years.

Apart from increasing land supply, other cooling measures introduced include higher taxes on luxury homes to curb speculative demand.

The value of Septembers property transactions totalled HK$53.51bn, down 33% from HK$80.24bn in August 2010 and down 20% from HK$67.05bn in September 2009.

Septembers residential property transactions fell 40.5% by value from August and were down 27% when compared with the same period of 2009.