China's property sector continued to cool down in November, but the declines have been narrowing, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on December 18.

New home prices in 67 out of 70 major cities reported month-on-month drops in November, the NBS said, whereas prices in three cities remained flat.

New home prices in Beijing and Shanghai dropped by 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, narrowing from 1.3-percent and 0.7-percent decreases a month earlier.

For existing homes, only 58 cities saw month-on-month price drops in November, compared with 64 in October. Six cities, mostly first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shenzhen, saw second-hand home prices rise.

NBS senior statistician Liu Jianwei attributed the narrowing decreases to government policy changes intended to avoid a sharp slowdown in the sector out of fear of jeopardizing the broader economy.

Those moves include fewer restrictions on home purchases and eased mortgage rules. In addition, the central bank in November lowered the one-year benchmark lending rate and deposit rate to cut financing costs.

Combined, the policies did have a positive impact on the sluggish market. In November, home sales reached a monthly high for this year, registering 809.6 billion yuan ($132.3 billion), 93.8 billion yuan ($15.09 billion) more than October.