China's first-tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, will lead a gradual recovery in the housing market this year, experts said at a forum held by People's Daily Online.

"The market change in big cities where pre-owned homes dominate the market has been influenced by a number of policies. And we believe it has almost bottomed out in this regard," Zou Linhua, a researcher at the National Academy of Economic Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the forum.

Beijing for example has seen a price drop of 20 percent compared with its peak in April of 2017, industry statistics show.

After a round of price correction in big cities over the past two years, risk in these cities' housing market has largely lowered. When the external environment and the international capital market improves, these cities will lead the market recovery, according to Zou.

Smaller cities, which have recorded price increases since 2017, will face the risk of downturn this year, even as the external situation improves, Zou added.

"Meanwhile liquidity in the market has improved since the last quarter of 2018, which will also help to boost the housing market to some extent, especially in those big cities," said Zou.

Zhang Haizhi and Li Jingya contributed to this story.