House prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities jumped a record high of 12.8 percent in April from a year ago, accelerating from the 11.7 percent in March, said the NBS. Prices of new residences soared 15.4 percent while those of used ones went up by 10.5 percent.

There has been a time lag before the government clampdown to filter through the property market, and house prices are expected to top out in May or June, said Chen Guoqiang, Director of the Real Estate Institute of Peking University.

Though prices have largely held up, it is not difficult to find clues of a cooling market somewhere else. The real estate climate index, a measure of property development activities, was 105.66 in April, down from 105.89 in March.

Yin Bocheng, Director of the Real Estate Research Center under the Shanghai-based Fudan University, said policymakers must continue with the austerity policies in case speculators return.