China's first-tier cities saw a clear rebound of housing sales over the past several weeks, promising a better property market in the coming spring, Shanghai Securities News reported Tuesday.

In Shanghai, the housing turnover topped 250,000 square meters last week while in Guangzhou, housing sales have been growing for four consecutive weeks to 14,000 sq m last week.

Despite tight controls on the housing market from the central government, more than 10 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, have started to tune their local housing policies since late 2011, covering the home purchase threshold, tax concessions and housing subsidies, said the report.

However, housing developers who still fear for the lingering recession opted to bring down house prices in the hope of more sales.

"It is a bit too early to talk about the warming of the property market," said an industry insider, "the developers now all rush to cash in on the rising housing sales after all."