Housing prices of 70 Chinese cities rose on average 6.8 percent year on year in November this year, and the growth rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than October, said a report of the National Development and Reform Commission on Friday.

The report said three cities, namely Hohhot, Dalian and Shenzhen, saw the biggest increases of sales prices for newly built commercial housing in November.

In Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the sales price of newly built commercial housing rose by 15.7 percent, and in Dalian, a coastal city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, the price was up 15.1 percent, while the sales price of newly built commercial houses in Shenzhen in south China rose by 10.9 percent.

Meanwhile, housing prices in 15 cities, including Shanghai, Nanjing, Guilin, Sanya, Haikou, Lanzhou and Changsha, fell after the Chinese central government adopted a slew of measures aiming to cool down the overheated property market, the report said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2005)