BEIJING, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The decline in the prices of commercial residential homes in China's 70 large and medium-sized cities continued to narrow on a year-on-year basis in July, official data showed on Friday.

In the four first-tier cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, new home prices dropped 1.1 percent from a year earlier in July, with the pace of decline narrowing by 0.3 percentage points from June, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

Shanghai, the country's economic hub, recorded a 6.1 percent year-on-year increase in new home prices last month, the NBS said.

Second and third-tier cities saw new home prices fall by 2.8 percent and 4.2 percent year on year in July, with the declines narrowing by 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively.

On a monthly basis, NBS data shows that new home prices of the four first-tier cities dropped 0.2 percent from June, and second- and third-tier cities saw new home prices fall by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

From January to July, real estate development investment totaled 5.36 trillion yuan (about 751 billion U.S. dollars), with that for residential properties accounting for 4.12 trillion yuan, according to NBS.

The Chinese government has implemented coordinated policies to stabilize the real estate market, underscoring China's efforts to maintain sectoral stability while pursuing long-term sustainability goals.

Since the fourth quarter of last year, the central government has intensified measures to halt the downturn in the real estate market. A comprehensive policy package has been introduced to stimulate investment, accelerate the renovation of old urban neighborhoods, increase the supply of affordable housing, and enforce a "white list" system to channel financial support to qualified developers.

China's government work report this year has called for efforts to "improve the standards and regulations on building quality homes that are safe, comfortable, eco-friendly, and smart." ■