BEIJING - Home prices in major Chinese cities largely remained stable in December as local governments continued to toughen up control of the housing market, official data showed Wednesday.

On a monthly basis, new house prices in China's four first-tier cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou - rose 1.3 percent in December, up 1 percentage point from the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

Meanwhile, resold house prices in the four cities continued to drop last month, dipping 0.3 percent on average.