China's property investment cools in first 11 months

BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's investment in property development cooled in the first 11 months of 2023, down 9.4 percent year on year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

Investment in residential buildings amounted to 7.89 trillion yuan (1.11 trillion U.S. dollars), down 9 percent year on year, NBS data showed.

Commercial housing sales shrank 8 percent year on year in terms of floor area to 1.01 billion square meters.

In terms of value, commercial housing sales dropped 5.2 percent year on year to 10.53 trillion yuan.

"These figures indicate that China's property sector is still in the process of adjustment," NBS spokesperson Liu Aihua told a press conference.

But the property market has recently shown some marginal improvement as the country's economy continued to recover and supportive measures took effect, Liu said.

The just-concluded Central Economic Work Conference has called for efforts to defuse risks in the property sector, equally meet the reasonable financing needs of real estate enterprises of different ownerships and promote stable and healthy development of the property sector.

With the implementation of relevant policies, the real estate market is expected to further improve, said the spokesperson.

The property development climate index, compiled by the NBS, came in at 93.42 points in November.