BEIJING -- Housing prices in 70 major Chinese cities rose an average 5.7 percent in July over the previous year, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The prices of new commodity housing increased by 6.7 percent, up 0.1 percentage point over June. Shenzhen, a south China city bordering Hong Kong, recorded a 13.6 percent rise in its prices of new commodity houses, the highest of all cities.

It was followed by Beijing at 11.1 percent, Hohhot(Inner Mongolia) at 9.6 percent, Guangzhou (Guangdong Province) at nine percent and Chengdu (Sichuan Province), also nine percent.

The continued price increases are challenging the central government's efforts over the last three years to stabilize housing prices and has provoked criticism of the government's housing policy.

The latest efforts taken by the government include ordering developers to build smaller houses affordable to lower-income families and imposing restrictions on property acquisition by foreign residents and organizations.

But in Shanghai, the situation is different. The prices of new commodity housing in the city dipped by 3.5 percent in July.