Beijing, Feb 20 (IANS) Buying a home in China is now becoming a costly affair for people, as prices of houses are rising with each passing year in many Chinese cities.

The cost of new homes rose more than 10 percent year-on-year in 10 of the 70 cities monitored across China, the Shanghai Daily reported citing the National Bureau of Statistics.

Hike in prices was maximum in Yueyang in Hunan province with 22 percent, followed by Haikou and Sanya in the southernmost Hainan province, up 21.6 and 19.1 percent respectively.

Shanghai witnessed a price rise of 1.8 percent year-on-year while Beijing's new homes' cost rose 9.1 percent.

Only two cities - Quanzhou in Fujian province and Nanchong in Sichuan province - showed no increase in house prices.

From this year, the country's top statistics agency is collecting data registered with local housing watchdogs instead of figures submitted by developers and industry associations.

On a monthly basis, prices rose in 60 cities out of the 70, with three of them seeing a rise of over three percent.

Three cities, including Chongqing, a major city in the southwestern region, where a property tax was announced recently, suffered drops and the rest remained flat.

"With the adoption of a new method, the figures may better reflect the real situation compared to previous ones," said Sky Xue, an analyst with China Real Estate Information Corp, a real estate information services provider.

"But it is always the case that statistical results are quite different from what ordinary people would perceive from their own experiences."

The bureau said only residential properties will be monitored from now on and not commercial properties, which were tracked previously.