China plans to launch a housing database linking 40 major cities, which analysts said Tuesday would close a loophole in ownership restrictions and lay the groundwork for a nationwide property tax.

As property prices have soared out of the reach of many ordinary Chinese in recent years, authorities introduced a range of measures to cool demand, such as bans on buying second homes and levying property taxes in select cities.

But the absence of a nationwide database of personal housing information meant investors have been able to flout the rules by buying properties in other cities.

Housing Minister Jiang Weixin said earlier this month that Beijing would launch a database by the end of June, a move IHS Global Insight analyst Ren Xianfang said was essential for the introduction of a nationwide property tax.

"It is a necessary infrastructure, which they have to put in place if they want to implement some of the longer-term housing policies such as the property tax," Ren told AFP.

Zhang Dong, head of the property research institute at Central South University in central China, was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying the database would also help authorities catch people breaching restrictions.

China's moves to curb property speculation have been finding their mark as home prices in nearly three-quarters of its major cities fell in December from November, official data shows.

Some 52 of 70 Chinese cities tracked by the government recorded month-on-month falls in new home prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said this month, with the total up slightly from 49 in November.

Property developers have been hit hard by the policies and a lack of funds after the government hiked interest rates and restricted bank lending to rein in surging inflation and cool real estate prices.

Despite growing concerns that falling property prices and sales could hurt economic growth, Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated Tuesday that restrictions would remain in place to ensure prices returned to a "reasonable level".