BEIJING - Loans in China's real estate sector rose at a slower pace in the first quarter as the housing market gradually cools down, data from the central bank showed Friday.

By the end of last month, financial institutions in China had lent 15.42 trillion yuan (2.5 trillion US dollars) to the property sector, up 18.8 percent year on year, 0.3 percentage points slower than the rate at the end of 2013, said a report from the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

Outstanding loans for real estate development amounted to 4.9 trillion yuan as of the end of March, while loans for individual purchases jumped 20.1 percent to 10.29 trillion yuan, down 0.9 percentage points from the end of last year.

The data came as China's red-hot housing market is showing increasing signs of cooling down.

Home prices in major Chinese cities grew at a slower pace in March, with fewer cities reporting month-on-month price gains, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Of a statistical pool of 70 major Chinese cities, 56 saw month-on-month gains in new home prices last month, down from 57 in February.

For existing homes, prices increased in 42 cities in March, also down from 46 in the previous month, the data showed.