A report by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows investment in the country's property sector reached 721.4 billion yuan (US$94.7 billion) in the first five months, an increase of 27.5 percent from the same period last year.

 

Of the total, 504.2 billion yuan was poured into residential property, up 29.5 percent, of which 20.8 billion yuan was injected into low-cost home construction, up 39.4 percent.

 

In the first five months, China's developers registered 1.21 trillion yuan of investment capital, up 26.2 percent from the same period last year, of which foreign investment reached 22.2 billion yuan, up 89.9 percent, the NBS said without elaborating.

 

The area of land under development reached 97.75 million square meters, up 11.2 percent, while the floor space of buildings under construction reached 1.56 billion square meters, up 21.9 percent.

 

By the end of May, the floor space of commercial property unsold or unused totaled 127 million square meters, up 4.7 percent, of which 68.25 million square meters was residential, up 1.4 percent.

 

The NBS report showed that China's housing climate index was 103.32 in May, 0.67 point higher than in April and 1.45 points higher than May 2006.

 

The housing climate index has six sub-indices, including property development, capital source, the area of land developed, average sale prices of marketable buildings, the floor space of marketable but unsold buildings and the floor space of buildings under construction.

 

The property market is growing when the index is above 100 and falling when it drops below 100.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2007)