Housing prices in major cities gained 10.9 percent year-on-year in February, with second-tier cities such as Urumqi, Ningbo and Haikou leading the climb, official figures showed.

Despite talk of a slowdown in the property sector, home prices have continued to rise in the past month, up 0.2 percent on January, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, which tracks housing prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities.

New apartment prices last month rose 11.8 percent year-on-year, but the growth rate dropped 0.4 of a percentage point from a month earlier.