China's property sector continued to cool in May, as new home prices in half of 70 major cities showed month-on-month drops, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on June 18.

Only 15 cities saw month-on-month increases, substantially down from 44 in April.

The average home price in the 70 cities slipped 0.15 percent from the previous month, marking the first drop in more than a year, according to the NBS.

Of all the 70 cities, prices in Hangzhou of east China's Zhejiang Province dropped the most, down by 1.4 percent.

For existing homes, prices also declined in 35 cities month on month in May, up from 22 cities in April.

Liu Jianwei, senior statistician for the NBS, said home buyers have started to adopt a wait-and-see attitude amid uncertain market prospects, prompting developers to cut prices to alleviate pressures from piling inventories.