This aerial photo taken on June 23, 2023 shows residential buildings along the Xuyan River, a tributary of Jinjiang River, in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING — Major Chinese cities reported falling home prices in January with narrowing declines, official data showed on Friday.

The National Bureau of Statistics reported that 56 of 70 large and medium-sized cities saw month-on-month drops in new home prices, down from 62 in December 2023. Additionally, 68 such cities registered price declines for second-hand homes, compared to 70 in the previous month.

Home prices in 31 second-tier cities and 35 third-tier cities also generally decreased in January compared to the previous month

READ MORE: More Chinese cities record falling home prices in October

In the four first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, prices of new homes edged down 0.3 percent in January, with the pace of decline narrowing by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. Meanwhile, that of resold homes saw its drop taper to 1 percent during the same period.

Home prices in 31 second-tier cities and 35 third-tier cities also generally decreased in January compared to the previous month.

On a year-on-year basis, prices of both new and resold homes in Chinese cities continued a downward trend in January.

READ MORE: Easing measures fails to impact Shenzhen's housing market

For new homes, first-tier and second-tier cities saw marginal price decreases, and smaller cities reported a 2.1-percent drop. For resold homes, there were also declines across the board, according to the data.