HOUSE prices in 70 major Chinese cities largely remained stable in January, official data showed Friday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement that new housing prices in four first-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen — edged up 0.4 percent month on month in January, retreating from the 1.3-percent increase in December.

New house prices climbed 0.7 percent in 31 second-tier cities and rose 0.6 percent in 35 third-tier cities.

Compared with slightly-rising new house prices, prices of resold houses showed more signs of cooling.

Seventeen cities reported month-on-month drops of resold house prices in January, and the number has remained high for four consecutive months. The four first-tier cities also saw falling or unchanged prices for four straight months.

NBS statistician Liu Jianwei said China’s house prices were stable in general last month as local authorities stuck with control policies to stabilize land and housing markets and guide expectations.

On a year-on-year basis, both new and resold house price registered increases in most Chinese cities, with second and third-tier cities seeing more robust growth than bigger cities, the NBS data showed.

With control measures from purchase restrictions to tightened loans still in place, real estate research agency E-house China R&D Institute predicted property sales in major Chinese cities will continue shrinking in the first quarter.(Xinhua)