BEIJING, Jan. 19 -- Home prices continued to rise in the majority of Chinese cities in December but the number registering smaller gains rose, according to data released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, prices of new residential properties climbed month on month in 65 of the 70 cities monitored by the bureau, compared with 66 in November.

“Home price increases continued to ease across the country last month with four gateway cities all seeing slower growth compared with a month earlier,” said Liu Jianwei, a senior statistician at the bureau.

“The introduction of further tightening measures by local governments ... has helped alter some potential buyers’ expectations.”

In December, 39 cities recorded smaller monthly gains in new home prices — seven more than in November. And 36 saw smaller increases in existing house prices, three more than the previous month.

In Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, month-on-month new home price growth narrowed by 0.1 percentage points compared with November, while in Shenzhen monthly growth narrowed by 0.4 percentage points.

On a year-on-year basis, 69 cities recorded price hikes, unchanged from November.

Smaller yearly gains in new home prices were recorded in 29 cities — an increase of 19 on November.

And 16 cities registered smaller increases in existing house prices from a year earlier, up 11 compared with November.

Among first-tier cities, new home prices in Guangzhou rose 0.7 percent from November, in Beijing and Shanghai climbed 0.6 percent and in Shenzhen advanced 0.5 percent.