HANGZHOU - Commercial property sales in booming Zhejiang province has seen further declines as the property sector continues to cool off with no signs of immediate loosening of tightening measures.

The total area sold slumped 22.9 percent year-on-year to 30.7 million square meters in the January-November period, the provincial statistics bureau said in a statement.

The sales declined 20 percent in the first 10 months and 15.3 percent in the first nine months, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, sales revenue hit 308.8 billion yuan, down 16.4 percent from the same period a year ago. The decline was 12.6 percent in the first 10 months.

China's once red-hot property sector has shown signs of cooling off this year with the help of tough government measures, including higher mortgage rates, a ban on third-home mortgage loans and purchase restrictions.

China will unswervingly maintain its regulation policies on the property market next year intended to return housing prices to a reasonable level, according decisions made at the country's central economic work conference this month.

With gloomy prospects for the next year, many cash-strapped property developers rolled out big discounts to promote sales, as they struggle to pay back debts at the year-end, the bureau said.

Earlier several local developers were reported to be in liquidity crisis or unable to pay back debts, and many real estate agencies have closed stores due to the declines in existing home sales.