BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Property market remained largely stable across China in January, with home prices edging down slightly in major cities amid tough purchase restrictions, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday.

New residential housing prices in the first-tier cities declined last month in comparison to that of December, and the growth of the second-hand home prices also went down 0.5 percentage point.

The property market in the second- and third-tier cities, however, is showing signs of slower growth, with the growth of new residential housing prices sliding 0.3 percentage point and 0.1 percentage point, respectively, from a month earlier, NBS data showed.