BEIJING - China's urban land prices saw increases in the fourth quarter last year as home prices surged month-on-month in December, a report showed.

The China Land Surveying and Planning Institute, under China's Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR), said in a report Monday that average land prices reached 2,882 yuan ($437.13) per square meter in the final quarter in some key cities it monitored, up 2.53 percent compared to the previous quarter.

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On a year-on-year basis, the figure represented an increase of 8.62 percent, the report showed.

Meanwhile, average land prices used for residential property development reached 4,245 yuan per square meter, up 3.67 percent quarter-on-quarter, and 11.02 percent year-on-year, the report showed.

Rising land prices also pushed up property prices as the country's National Bureau of Statistics announced Monday that December home prices in 70 major Chinese cities rose 0.3 percent month-on-month and 6.4 percent year-on-year.

The report also showed average urban land prices in the Yangtze River Delta Region were the highest, at 4,403 yuan per square meter, followed by those in the Pearl River Delta Region, at 3,830 yuan per square meter.