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Last month, the sale price of housing in 70 cities continued a 5.4 percent year-on-year hike and a 0.7 percent month-on-month rise. Prices for newly built commercial houses rose 5.3 percent year on year, 0.7 percentage points lower than in March.

The top five cities by housing price hike are Beihai, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with a year-on-year increase of 23.6 percent; Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, 11.3 percent; Beijing, 10.7 percent; Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei Province, 9.6 percent; and Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, 8.8 percent.

Second-hand housing prices kept growing too, with a year-on-year increase of 6.1 percent, and the top five cities are: Beihai, 13.2 percent; Shenzhen, 12 percent; Zhengzhou, 10.3 percent; Beijing, 9 percent; and Dalian, 8.3 percent.

Prices for non-residential housing grew 4.9 percent year on year. Prices for office buildings increased 7.6 percent, business and entertainment buildings rose 4.3 percent, and industry storage space grew 2.5 percent, compared with the same period of last year.

In Shanghai, from May 18 to 24, new housing turnover reached a new high beyond 715,000 square meters. The average sales price is 10,292 yuan (US$1,345.49) per square meter, 5.5 percent from the 9,748 yuan per square meter at the beginning of this year.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)