BEIJING, Jan. 17 -- Home prices in first-tier Chinese cities increased in December compared to the previous month, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday.

According to the data, prices of new homes and resold homes in the four cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen increased by 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

Among the 70 large and medium-sized cities, 23 saw month-on-month increases in new home prices, up from 17 in November, and nine registered rising prices for resold homes, compared to 10 registered in the previous month.