Shenzhen home sales surge in January

SHENZHEN, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Housing sales in the southeastern Chinese booming city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, soared in January as the property market saw a boom.

Real estate developers in Shenzhen sold out 568,500 square meters of new commercial housing, up 32.1 percent from a month earlier and up 369.3 percent from a year earlier, the municipal commission of urban planning, land and resources said Monday.

This was the strongest sales in 43 months, the agency said in a statement.

The strong demand drove the average price of new homes up 8.4 percent month on month to 19,694 yuan (3,160 U.S. dollars) per square meter, it added.

In addition, the sales of existing homes reached 672,000 square meters in January, up 21.8 percent from a month ago and 601.6 percent from a year ago.

The housing market started a strong recovery in mid last year after the once subdued demand returned to market amid expectations that the housing prices would rise following the central bank's twice lending rate cuts.

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