China's property investment up 0.7% in Q1

BEIJING -- China's investment in property development rose 0.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

During the period, property investment stood at around 2.78 trillion yuan ($435.44 billion), NBS data showed.

Investment in residential buildings went up 0.7 percent year-on-year to about 2.08 trillion yuan in the January-March period.

During the period, commercial housing sales dropped 13.8 percent year-on-year in terms of floor area to 310.46 million square meters.

In terms of value, commercial housing sales went down 22.7 percent to around 2.97 trillion yuan.

China has reiterated its stance of "housing is for living in, not for speculation," vowing to keep land prices, housing prices and market expectations stable and adopt city-specific measures to facilitate positive circulation and sound development in the real estate sector.

The country will move faster to develop the long-term rental market, promote the construction of government-subsidized housing, and support the commodity housing market in better meeting the reasonable needs of homebuyers, according to this year's government work report.

Monday's data showed that China's gross domestic product grew 4.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.