Land prices fell for the 12th straight year in 2002, the land ministry said in a report released Monday.

Residential land prices fell an average of 5.8 percent, a decline larger than the previous year's 5.2 percent, according to the report on prices per square meter at 31,866 select locations nationwide.

Commercial land prices fell an average 8 percent as declines in areas outside major urban centers more than offset increases in some busy metropolitan districts, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said.