BEIJING, April 18 -- China's property market continued to show signs of recovery in March, with most of the surveyed major cities reporting month-on-month rises in new home prices.

Of 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed in March, 62 saw new home prices month on month increases, up from 47 the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

Meanwhile, eight cities reported month-on-month price declines, down from 15 in February, according to NBS data.

On a yearly basis, 40 cities posted new-home price increases and 29 reported falls in March, compared with 32 and 37 in February.

New-home prices soared 62.5 percent year on year in the southern city of Shenzhen, the sharpest increase last month among all the major cities, followed by Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing, where prices surged 30.5 percent, 17.8 percent and 17.6 percent year on year, respectively.

The northeastern city of Dandong registered the steepest price decline of 3.8 percent over the previous year.

Prices for existing homes also continued to pick up in March, with 54 cities reporting higher month-on-month prices and 13 reporting lower prices.

China's housing market started to recover in the second half of 2015 after cooling for more than a year, boosted by government support measures, including interest rate cuts and lower deposit requirements.

In February, taxes on some property transactions were slashed and further reductions to the minimum downpayments for eligible first- and second-time home buyers were announced.