While Hong Kong's house prices are experiencing consecutive declines, the Mainland's real estate market continued to show signs of a rise in April. But the rise is taking place around first-tier cities, not in them.

The China Index Academy released its survey results on Sunday.  Of the large and medium-sized cities surveyed, the average house price was about 1770 US dollars, per square meter.  That's a 1.45 percent month-on-month increase.

The top ten, include Huizhou, Zhuhai, and Dongguan around Guangzhou; Kunshan, Suzhou, and Nanjing around Shanghai. On a yearly basis,  50 cities posted house price increases in April, compared with 43 cities in March.

Prices soared nearly 60 percent year on year in the southern city of Shenzhen, the sharpest increase last month among all the major cities. China's housing market started to recover in the second half of 2015 after cooling for more than a year.  It got a boost from government support measures, including interest rate cuts and lower deposit requirements.