China's property market grew at the fastest pace in 20 months in February, with housing prices rising at a double digit rate, despite the government's cooling-down moves, according to data released Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Housing prices in China's 70 large and medium-sized cities increased 10.7 percent in February from a year earlier, and were up 0.9 percent compared to the previous month, said the NBS.

Prices of new homes in February rose 13 percent year on year, up 1.3 percent from January, and were mainly pushed up by soaring home prices in Hainan Province as the state government decided to build the island into an international tourist resort in December.