beijing july 1 reuters  new homes prices in china rose at a slightly faster pace in june from a month earlier a private survey showed on friday，driven by a slew of policy easing measures by small and mediumsized cities to stimulate demand new home prices in 100 cities rose 004 edging up from the 003 gain in may according to survey data from china index academy one of the countrys largest independent real estate research firms chinas depressed property market has shown some signs of improvement in recent weeks stimulus steps this year have mainly focused on helping home buyers including subsidies smaller down payments and relaxations on home purchases major homebuilder china vanke co 000002sz said this week that the property market has bottomed in the short term with a clear monthonmonth rise in sales in june helped in part by pentup demand following months of covid19 restrictions but chairman yu liang cautioned the recovery will be slow and mild among 100 cities surveyed by the research firm 47 cities reported price growth in monthovermonth terms compared with more than 40 cities in may prices in tiertwo cities including provincial capitals rose 014 quickening from a 007 uptick in may xian the capital of the northwestern province of shaanxi registered the biggest growth of 068 local governments are likely to further implement cityspecific policies like better terms for households with more than one child said the academy the property market is expected to rebound in the second half of the year as confidence in home buying will gradually recover due to easier covid19 curbs and stimulus measures reporting by liangping gao and ryan woo editing by kim coghill