Home prices in more Chinese cities? declined month-on-month last month as the government beefed up its efforts to cool the market, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Monday.

12 cities reported?month-on-month price declines of new commercial homes?out of the NBS' statistical pool of 70 major Chinese cities, compared with eight in February.

Home prices stood unchanged in 8 cities, while 29 cities posted smaller monthly price gains.

As for resold housing units, 16 cities reported second-hand home price declines month on month in March, up from four in February. Home prices stayed unchanged in 10 major cities in March from February, according to the NBS.

In Beijing, new home prices rose 4.9 percent in March?year-on-year,?on a down trajectory?from an annual increase of 6.8 percent in February, and the prices remained unchanged compared with last month by a month-on-month measure.

In Shanghai, the prices were up 1.7 percent year-on-year in March, compared with a rise of 2.3 percent last month.?Measured by month-on-month figures, the prices?rose 0.2 percent compared with February.

Property developers suffered from a slipping sales in China's major cities last month, due to government's tightening measures such as?restrictions on second-home buying in some cities and a trial real-estate tax in Shanghai and Chongqing.

The NBS stopped releasing overall housing prices for 70 major cities in January of this year, citing the fact that overall price figures for these cities failed to reflect regional differences. The NBS is also using a new surveying method to determine price changes.