BEIJING — Home prices in 70 major Chinese cities remained generally stable with a slight pickup in large cities in August, official data showed on Sept 17.

New home prices in four first-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou — increased 0.3 percent month-on-month in August, the same with the increase in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

New home prices climbed 0.5 percent in 31 second-tier cities in August from July, and the growth rate was 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous month.

New home prices rose 0.7 percent in 35 third-tier cities in August from July and the growth pace was the same as the previous month.

Prices of resold housing in first-tier cities remained flat in August, while the growth rate was 0.3 percent month-on-month in July.

Prices of resold housing in second-tier cities reported a rise of 0.2 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from a month ago.

Resold home prices were up 0.8 percent month-on-month in third-tier cities, and the growth pace was 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous month.

NBS senior statistician Kong Peng said the real estate market continued its steady trend in August as the central government has reiterated that "house is for living in, not for speculation," calling for the implementation of a long-term management mechanism for the real estate market, while not using the real estate sector as a short-term measure to stimulate the economy.