Housing prices in China's 70 large and medium-sized cities rose 7.8 percent in December 2009 from a year earlier, and were up 1.5 percent compared to the previous month, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.

The property price increase stood at 5.7 percent in November year-on-year.

Prices of new houses in December rose 9.1 percent from the same month last year, and were up 1.9 percent from November.

In December, prices of second-hand houses in the 70 main cities rose 6.8 percent from the previous year, and 1.0 percent from the previous month.