Beijing, July 18 (IANS): China's real estate market warmed up in June, with fewer cities seeing new home prices drop for the fourth consecutive month.

Of 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed in June, new home prices climbed in 27, up from the 20 in the previous month, Xinhua reported on Friday, citing the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The cities included Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

For existing homes, 20 cities saw price declines on a monthly basis, while 42 cities posted gains.

China's property market took a downturn in 2014 due to weak demand and a surplus of unsold homes. The cooling has continued into 2015, with both sales and prices falling and investment slowing.

To combat the downward pressure, the central bank has cut the benchmark interest rate four times since November 2014, and reduced banks' reserve requirement ratio three times since February 2015.

According to NBS statistician Liu Jianwei, home sales in top-tier cities saw strong growth. While in less developed cities, both new and existing home sales either stayed flat or dropped.

China's economy posted a seven percent growth year-on-year in the second quarter of the fiscal 2015-16, and the government's bold moves in macro-control and adherence to structural reforms paved the way for steady improvement in the latter half of the year.