More Chinese cities saw the cost of new homes increase in April compared with a month before, official data showed Wednesday, as the government continues its fight to rein in property prices.

The National Bureau of Statistics data, which came after authorities last week moved to further limit bank lending, showed the price of new builds rose in 56 of the 70 major cities tracked.

Home prices declined in nine cities and were unchanged in five others.

The data marked the first time since the bureau switched to its current survey format earlier this year that the number of cities with declining prices was down on the month before.

In March, 12 cities had seen prices decline while 49 saw increases.

Among major cities, Beijing prices went up by a marginal 0.1 percent, while Shanghai saw a rise of 0.3 percent, the statistics bureau said.

The Chinese government has been struggling to contain real estate prices, which in many areas have surged far beyond what average income earners can afford.

It has introduced a number of measures to cool the market since late 2009, including bans on buying second homes in some cities and introducing trial property taxes in Shanghai and Chongqing.

To appease mounting public anger over high home costs, the government has vowed to more than double land supply for low-cost housing this year.

The central bank last week announced the fifth hike this year in the reserve requirement ratio, which effectively limits the amount of money banks can loan out, after raising the rate six times last year, as it tries to curb inflation.

It has increased interest rates four times since October.

China's consumer price index, which is a key gauge of inflation, rose 5.3 percent on year in April — a slight easing from a 32-month high of 5.4 percent in March but well above Beijing's four percent target for 2011.

The April data marked the fourth monthly survey since the government scrapped a nationwide property index and switched to publishing data for individual cities.

The old method, which gave an average of prices nationwide, had been criticised by some as understating price growth by diluting large spikes in big cities with tamer changes in smaller ones.

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