The average housing price in 70 major cities in China continued to rise by 5.5 percent last month from a year earlier despite the central government's measures introduced in the past few months to curb surging prices, the National Development and Reform Commission reported yesterday.

The average new home price in these cities rose 7.1 percent from a year ago, led by Shenzhen, Bejing and Xiamen which all posted more than 10 percent growth, according to the top planning agency's monthly survey.

Prices of preowned houses climbed 4.5 percent from a year ago with Dalian, Shenzhen and Zhengzhou leading the growth rate.

Prices of the non-residential sector including offices, shopping malls and warehouses rose 3.1 percent at the same time.

The central government introduced a series of new loan, tax and land policies in the past few months including raising the downpayment ratio and interest rates to cool an overheated property market.

It continued its efforts to curb speculation by imposing a 20 percent capital-gain tax on the preowned homes sales effective on August 1.

Editor: Yan