BEIJING -- Home prices kept rising at a quicker pace in major Chinese cities last month, underscoring the necessity of government measures to cool the property market, data showed on Friday.

Of a statistical pool of 70 major Chinese cities monitored by the National Bureau of Statistics, 53 cities saw home prices increase within 2.2 percent in January from a month earlier. In December, 54 cities recorded increases with a growth margin of no more than 1.2 percent.

New home prices in first-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen respectively rose 2.1 percent, 1.3 percent, 2.0 percent and 2.2 percent on a month-on-month basis, marking a quicker pace of growth than in December.

On a year-on-year basis, 53 cities registered rising prices with the growth rate drastically up to 4.7 percent, compared with the 2.4 percent rise recorded in December, the NBS said in a statement on its website.

New home price in Guangzhou recorded the largest year-on-year growth of 4.7 percent, followed by Urumqi and Beijing. The eastern city of Wenzhou saw its housing price plunge 10.1 percent from a year ago, according to the NBS.