BEIJING, Oct. 20 -- China's 70 large and medium-sized cities in general continued to see narrowed year-on-year home price declines in September, official data showed on Monday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement that the prices of new homes in four top-tier cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen -- decreased by 0.7 percent from a year ago, a smaller decline than the 0.9 percent drop recorded in August. Notably, Shanghai, the country's economic hub, recorded a 5.6 percent rise.

Other cities logged slower declines likewise. New home prices in second-tier cities went down 2.1 percent compared with a year ago and third-tier cities saw a 3.4 percent decrease, both narrowing by 0.3 percentage points from the previous month.

The NBS data also showed the margin of year-on-year price declines of existing homes moderated across all major cities.

On a month-to-month basis, the overall downward trend continued in both new and second-hand home prices in major cities, according to the NBS.