China's top 100 real estate developers saw a sharp monthly decline in its total sales due to the Spring Festival holiday, the Economic Information Daily reported Monday, citing an industry report.

The total sales volume of China's top 100 property developers was down by 22.9 percent month-on-month, and 11 percent year-on-year in February, according to China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC), an online industrial information provider.

Floor area sold by Vanke, China's housing market giant, plunged 22 percent to 2.47 million square meters, with the sales falling 12 percent to 43.19 billion yuan (around 6.4 billion U.S. dollars) month-on-month.

CRIC attributed the falling turnover to unexpected cooling in the real estate market of third- and fourth-tier cities last month.

The housing market in the cities of Xuzhou, Huai'an and other smaller cities which are mainly prompted by migrant workers who want to purchase property in their hometown saw a significant drop in property sales, according to CRIC.

China's real estate sector has been expanding at a slower pace in recent years due to government control measures. Property sales in value gained 12.2 percent in 2018, down 1.5 percentage points from the previous year.