Property investments in China increased 22.8 percent year-on-year to CNY667 billion (S$132.87 billion) in the first two months of 2013, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This translates to a decline of five percentage points from the same period last year, but is 6.6 percentage points up compared to growth for the whole of 2012.
NBS also revealed that construction began on 174.31 million sq m of housing in the first two months, a 15.3 percent increase from the previous year.
At the same time, commercial housing sales surged by 49.5 percent year-on-year to 104.71 million sq m, while overall value climbed 77.6 percent to CNY736.1 billion (S$146.66 billion) in the first two months.
In January, NBS data showed that housing prices rose at a faster pace in major Chinese cities, partly due to concerns about future price hikes. New home prices in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou climbed 1.3 percent, 2.1 percent, 2.2 percent and 2.0 percent month-on-month respectively.
China introduced new cooling measures on 1 March to further regulate its property market amid expectations of price increases. The latest regulations include higher down payments and mortgage rates, higher transaction duties, and strict purchase qualifications.
Shabnam Muzammil, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories email shabnam@propertyguru.com.sg
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