BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Housing prices in major Chinese cities remained stable in August as the government continued stepping up property curbs, data showed Saturday.

On a monthly basis, four first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, saw new home prices rise 0.3 percent in August, picking up from an increase of 0.2 percent in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

For the first eight months, average new home prices in these cities dipped 0.1 percent from one year earlier, compared with a rise of 14.6 percent during the same period in 2017.