The statistical reform is in response to the agency's failure to accurately reflect skyrocketing home prices. Its figures showed home prices only edged up 1.5 percent on average in 2009.

"In the past the housing price data were provided by property developers and second-hand house agencies. The authenticity of their data is doubtful," said Yang.

According to Yang, the NBS' new move features three highlights. First, since January 2011, NBS will compile data of newly constructed residential buildings in 53 cities based on online transaction records from city-level housing departments. The other 17 cities will accelerate the building of their online transaction system.

Second, the sales prices for residential buildings will be divided into three categories, namely, 90 square meters and below, 90-144 square meters and above 144 square meters, which will enable the government to implement differentiated regulation policies for different types of properties.

Third, in order to sustain the continuity and stability for the calculation on the year-on-year data, the NBS will adopt technical methods on the calculation of year-on-year data, based on the concerning statistical data on housing prices in 2010 as the base year. In the past, the reference base for housing price used to be the year before. The same reference base will make the comparison easier and clearer for both insiders and average people.