ANKARA

House prices in China's second- and third-tier cities continued to decline in April, the state-owned Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

A total of 31 second-tier cities recorded a monthly decline of 0.1% in new home prices, while 35 third-tier cities saw a monthly fall of 0.6% in prices, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

However, new home prices in four first-tier cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou – showed an increase of 0.2% in April from the previous month.

Home prices in 70 major cities demonstrated an overall easing trend as the number of cities that notched a decrease in home prices increased, said Sheng Guoqing, a senior statistician at the bureau.