A salesman introduces a property project in Wuhan, Hubei province. [Photo by Miao Jian/For China Daily]

BEIJING - China's once red-hot property market continued to show signs of cooling as home prices were faltering or posting slower growth in major cities amid the government's tough purchase curbs, official data showed Friday.

On a yearly basis, of the 70 cities surveyed in July, the pace of new home price growth slowed in 15 major cities compared with the same month of last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

On a month-on-month basis, new home prices fell or remained flat in 14 cities in July, up from 10 in June, according to the NBS data.