Fewer Chinese cities saw home price increases in August as the country continued efforts to curb rising property prices and speculation.

In August, 36 cities, down from 50 in July, recorded higher new home prices than a month earlier, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on September 18.

Compared with July, new home prices in 20 cities declined in August, up from nine in July, while 14 cities saw their new home prices unchanged, showed the NBS data from a pool of 70 cities.

However, on a year-on-year basis, 14 out of the 70 cities witnessed new home price increases of up to 1.3 percent in August.

Recent government policies to bolster a slowing economy, including interest rate cuts in June and July, helped boost the pent-up demand for housing and fuel expectations of price rises.