Aerial photo taken on Feb. 22, 2022 shows a snow-covered residential compound in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

China continued to see a generally stable housing market in January, with more cities witnessing slight month-on-month increases in home prices, official data showed Thursday.

In January, 36 out of 70 large and medium-sized cities saw month-on-month rises in new home sales prices, up from 15 in December, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. A total of 13 cities witnessed higher resale home prices, up from seven in the previous month.

New home prices in four first-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou -- edged up 0.2 percent month on month in January, according to the data.

New home prices in 31 second-tier cities increased 0.1 percent month on month, reversing the 0.3 percent drop registered in December, while 35 third-tier cities saw a month-on-month decline of 0.1 percent.

Prices of resale homes in the four first-tier cities went up 0.4 percent month on month in January, compared with a 0.5 percent reduction in the previous month. Prices in second-tier and third-tier cities edged down 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent month on month, respectively, during the period.

Year on year, new home prices in the four first-tier cities rose 2.1 percent last month, while resale home prices in these cities rose 0.9 percent.

Liu Lijie, an analyst with the Beike Research Institute, attributed the market warming to the optimized COVID-19 response, as well as recent policy adjustments to support the real estate sector.

Homebuyers are shifting away from the wait-and-see attitude, and the reduction in home purchase costs has unleashed some pent-up housing demand, said Liu.

China's property market has gone through a tough year in 2022, pounded by factors such as COVID-19 resurgences, dented market confidence and shrinking demand.

Policymakers have rolled out a flurry of supportive measures to shore up the sector. In November, China's financial authorities issued a guideline encouraging commercial banks to grant loans to acquire real estate projects in a prudent and orderly manner.

In addition, China announced in early January that it would put in place a dynamic mechanism to allow cities to adjust the lower limit for first-home mortgage rates based on the trend of their property prices, another boost for the sector.

Yan Yuejin, research director at E-house China R&D Institute, said with policy support in place, China's property market has the foundation to maintain stability, citing improvement in the funding of property developers and sales figures.

At a recent work conference on this year's financial market, China's central bank said it will implement city-specific housing credit policies, provide financial services to ensure the delivery of housing, and increase financial support for house leasing to promote the smooth transition of the real estate industry to a new development model.