China's average commercial housing prices grew to 2,701 yuan or US$329 per square meter during the first half of this year, up 11.6 percent over the same period of last year. 
 
China's average commercial housing prices grew to 2,701 yuan or US$329 per square meter during the first half of this year, up 11.6 percent over the same period of last year.

The National Bureau of Statistics says a total of 110 million square meters of marketable housing units were sold during the first half of this year on the Chinese mainland, up 26.3 percent.

Sales revenues from those units totaled 294.7 billion yuan or US$35.9 billion, up 40.9 percent.

By the end of June, commercial housing vacancy stood at 96.97 million square meters, up 0.2 percent, or down by 5.1 percentage points over the first quarter.

The bureau said 58.5 percent of the commercial housing had been vacant for more than one year.

The amount of vacant commercial residences or offices dropped while more commercial housing for businesses were vacant.
 
(CRI July 22, 2004)