HONG KONG -- About half of 70 major Chinese cities saw declines in their housing prices last month as Beijing tightened measures to ward off a bubble, a government report showed Tuesday.

In October, prices of new residential properties in 34 medium and large cities dropped on-month, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said.

Seventeen cities saw a slight rise in prices, while the average increase was less than 0.2 percent.

Earlier this year, Beijing announced a set of measures to cool property markets, including stricter down payment ratios and mortgage rates, as the country’s property prices skyrocketed on robust economic growth.

Meanwhile, prices of existing residential properties also dropped last month in 38 cities. Thirteen cities saw an expansion, while 19 cities stayed flat.

Four metropolitan cities in China -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- saw their residential property prices fall in a range of 0.1 to 0.3 percent after staying nearly unchanged over the past three months.

The municipal governments there imposed stricter property purchase restrictions under the guidance of the central Chinese government.

(Yonhap News)