China's property investment slows pace

BEIJING - China's property investment continued to slow in the first seven months of this year, fresh evidence of cautious attitudes from builders and the headwind facing the industry, official data showed.

Real estate investment rose 4.3 percent year on year to 5.26 trillion yuan ($830.9 billion) in the January to July period, with the growth rate 0.3 percentage points lower than that registered in the first half of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

In the first seven months, investment in residential housing climbed 3 percent from the same period last year, 0.2 percentage points faster than the pace in the first half of this year, the NBS said in a report.

New housing construction stood at 817.3 million square meters in the period, plunging 16.8 percent from a year earlier, it noted.

Sales value of commercial housing in the period went up 13.4 percent year on year to 4.12 trillion yuan, pointing to nascent recovery signs in some cities.

China's property market took a downturn in 2014 due to weak demand and a surplus of unsold homes. The cooling has continued into 2015, with both sale prices falling and investment slowing.

With a string of supportive policies targeted at the property sector taking effect, the housing market in China's metropolitans has witnessed a strong rally in recent months, while the recovery in smaller cities remains mild due to the size of inventories and other challenges.