China's housing market remained generally stable in June, with mild month-on-month increases in home prices in 70 major Chinese cities, official data showed Thursday.

New home prices in four first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, rose by 0.6 percent month on month in June, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

On a monthly basis, new home prices edged up 0.9 percent in 31 second-tier cities, and rose by 0.8 percent in 35 third-tier cities.

Prices of resold housing in first-tier cities rose by 1 percent month on month in June, down 0.1 percentage points from that reported in the previous month.

Meanwhile, resold home prices in second- and third-tier cities both expanded by 0.5 percent last month, the NBS data showed.

On year-on-year basis, new and resold home prices in first-tier cities expanded at slightly faster rates.

In June, new home prices in first-tier cities rose by 3.3 percent year on year, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous month, while resold home prices expanded by 5.2 percent, compared with the 4.1-percent rise in May.

Meanwhile, home prices continued the trend of slower year-on-year increases in second- and third-tier cities.

Kong Peng, senior statistician at the NBS, said the country's housing demand was further unleashed in June with the ongoing recovery of business, market and daily life activities.

Thursday's data also showed that commercial housing sales in terms of floor area totaled 694.04 million square meters in the first half, down 8.4 percent year on year. In terms of value, commercial housing sales fell by 5.4 percent year on year to 6.69 trillion yuan in the first half.

China will stick to its principle of "housing is for living in, not for speculation," according to this year's government work report.

The country will implement city-specific policies to promote steady and healthy development of the real estate market, the report said. 

(Cover: A residential compound in Beijing, China, May 31, 2020. /VCG)