China sees property investment total RMB 2.51 trln in Jan-Sep

Oct. 16, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China's property investment swelled 17.7% year on year in the first nine months of this year, reaching RMB 2.51 trillion, according to the statistics released by China's National Bureau of Statistics.

The growth rate for the first nine months is 3 percentage points higher than in the first eight months and 8.8 percentage points lower than in the corresponding period of last year,

Residential property investment grew 13.4% year on year to RMB 1.76 trillion in the nine-month period and accounted for 70.2% of the total. The increase was 2.5 percentage points higher than that of the period from January to August and 15.3 percentage points lower than that of the same period of last year.

In the first three quarters of this year, the country began building 732 million square meters of properties, 0.4% less than in the same period last year. Completed properties amounted to 334 million sq m, of which residential properties accounted for 277 million sq m.

China sold a total of 583.71 million sq m of properties for RMB 2.75 trillion in the period from January to September, 44.8% more than in the same period last year. It sold 46.4% more residential properties and 23.5% more office buildings. Sales of other commercial properties increased by 30.6%.