China's property market continued to hot up in March with home prices in major cities growing at a double-digit pace, even as the government tries to rein in prices, official data released Wednesday showed.

Home prices in China's 70 large and medium-sized cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou increased 11.7 percent in March from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement on its website.

The March year-on-year growth rate is 1 percentage points higher than that in February.

Prices of new homes nationwide rose 14.2 percent in March year on year, the NBS said.

Of major cities, prices of new homes in Haikou, capital city of Hainan Province, jumped the most with a surge of 64.8 percent year on year last month. Haikou home prices were boosted by a government decision taken last December to make the island an international tourist resort.

Prices of existing homes in the major cities advanced 9.5 percent year on year in March, the statement said.

Sanya, the second largest city in Hainan, saw its existing home sale prices rise 50.4 percent year on year, the most for any city, the statement added.

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2010)