BEIJING — China's home prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities displayed a generally stable trend in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on July 15.

In June, 31 out of the 70 cities saw a month-on-month growth in new home sales prices, up 6 from May, data from the NBS showed.

Four first-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou — saw their new home prices edge up 0.5 percent month-on-month in June, widening 0.1 percentage points from May.

New home prices in 31 second-tier cities reversed the month-on-month decline in May to register a growth of 0.1 percent, while 35 third-tier cities saw a month-on-month decline of 0.3 percent, the same level as that in May.

Prices of resale homes in the four first-tier cities increased 0.1 percent in June. Second-tier and third-tier cities saw their prices of resale homes inch down 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent on a monthly basis, respectively.

On a yearly basis, new home prices in the four first-tier cities rose 3.3 percent in June, down 0.2 percentage points from the rise in the previous month, while resale home prices in the regions climbed 1.1 percent, down 0.6 percentage points from the month before.

A key meeting of China's top decision-makers held in April called for efforts to improve real estate policies, a significant underpinning for the economy. The meeting reiterated the principle that "houses are for living in, not for speculation."

China's investment in property development went down 5.4 percent year-on-year in the first half to 6.83 trillion yuan (about $1.01 trillion), NBS data showed on July 15.