China's housing prices report slight month-on-month growth in August

China's housing market remained generally stable in August, with slight month-on-month growth in home prices in major cities, official data showed Monday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen — rose by 0.6 percent month on month in August, up 0.1 percentage points from a month earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Thirty-one second-tier cities reported a month-on-month increase of 0.6 percent in new home prices, compared with a 0.5-percent rise in July, while 35 third-tier cities witnessed a month-on-month growth of 1 percent in new home prices, with a slightly faster pace compared with the 0.8-percent expansion in July.

Prices of resold housing in first-tier cities edged up 1 percent month on month in August, with the growth quickening by 0.3 percentage points than the previous month. Second-tier cities saw slower month-on-month growth of resold housing price, while the price rise in third-tier cities widened 0.1 percentage points from the previous month to 0.6 percent.

In August, local governments continued to maintain the principle of "housing is for living in, not for speculation," and adopted timely and targeted measures to steadily implement the long-term mechanism for real estate supervision, said Kong Peng, a senior NBS statistician.

China's investment in property development rose 3.4 percent year on year during the first seven months, compared with a 1.9-percent increase reported in the first half of the year, the NBS data showed.