The Chinese government is moving to restrain property prices and prevent a sharp rebound, People's Daily cited an unnamed source as saying over the weekend.

Beijing Land Reserve Center, a government body in charge of public land management, suspended the sale of 10 land parcels in an effort to stabilize market expectations, the center said in an online statement on Sept 21.

According to Hu Jinhui, vice-president of 5i5j Real Estate, this was intended to ease expectations of another rise is property prices.

The government may delay the sale of land parcels or change to location of parcels for sale as a means to steady prices, he added.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the value of land sales reached 96.4 billion yuan ($15.28 billion) in August, a record high for 2012.