More Chinese cities saw home prices rise in October from September despite the government's dogged efforts to curb property prices, said the National Bureau of Statistics on November 18.

In October, 35 of 70 major cities, up from 31 in September, recorded higher new home prices than a month earlier.

Home sales rose 5.6 percent year on year to 4.63 trillion yuan ($736 billion) in the first 10 months, accelerating by 2.9 percentage points from the January-September period.

Home transactions have picked up over the past month, the traditional peak season for housing sales in the country, on the back of recent government policies to shore up growth, analysts said.

Yin Zhongli, a finance researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the government's current measures showed that it has kept its vigilance against price hikes. The central bank has stopped introducing more easing measures since the interest rate cut in August for fear of re-igniting speculation fervor in the property market, he said.