China's property sector showed new signs of cooling in July, with more cities reporting month-on-month price drops, official data showed on August 18.

Out of 70 major Chinese cities, 64 saw month-on-month price declines for new homes in July, compared with 55 in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Only two cities—Xiamen in southeast China's Fujian Province and Dali in southwest China's Yunnan Province—saw month-on-month gains in new home prices last month, compared with eight cities in June and 15 cities in May, the NBS data showed.

The growth rates in the 65 cities moderated significantly in July, said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at the NBS.

Liu said many home buyers were adopting a wait-and-see attitude due to uncertain market prospects, which had led to month-on-month drops in home prices in more Chinese cities.

The latest data added to fears that China's property market is experiencing an obvious downturn after dismal growth in the last few years.

Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at real estate agent Centaline Property, said the latest data suggested that the cooling trend was still evident. Growth of property investment starting in February has decelerated for six months straight.