Gao Yunduan

Although China's real estate market has not returned to the past prosperity, it has still shown signs of recovery from the statistics on real estate development and property sales, according to a report on real estate market operation in the first quarter of this year published by the National Bureau of Statistics.

China completed investment in real estate development amounting to RMB488.0 billion in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 4.1% year on year, which was 3.1 percentage points higher than the growth in the first two months, but 28.2 percentage points lower than that of the same period last year. Of this, investment in residential housing was RMB342.2 billion, up 3.2% year on year, which was 2.4 percentage points higher than the first two months, but 31.5 percentage points lower than the same period last year, and accounting for 70.1% of the total investment in real estate development.

In the January-March period, the construction area of housing by real estate development enterprises reached 1.787 billion square metres, up 12.7% year on year, which was 1.5 percentage points lower than the first two months and 14.8 percentage points lower than the same period last year. The area of newly started housing was 201 million square metres, down 16.2% year on year, which was 1.4 percentage points steeper than the first two months. Completed area of housing was 99.22 million square metres up 26.3% on year, which was 2.7 percentage points steeper than the first two months. Of this, completed areas of residential housing reached 81.17 million square metres rising 26.9%, which was 1.6 percentage points lower than the growth in the first two months.

In January-March, China's real estate development enterprises purchased land of 47.42 million square metres down 40.1% year on year (in comparison with the 29.7% growth in the same period last year; completed land development areas amounted to 52.23 million square metres down 11.3% year on year, which was 11% growth in the same period last year.

In January-March, China's total sales of housing reached 113.09 million square metres, up 8.2% year on year, of this, areas of sold residential housing went up 8.7%; that of office buildings down 13.1%; and that of commercial-use housing up 7.8%. Sales value of commodity housing reached RMB505.9 billion, up 23.1% on year, of which sales of residential housing jumped 24.7%,;that of office buildings and commercial-use buildings rose 20% and 14.4% respectively.

In January-March, the fund supply for the year of China's real estate development enterprises amounted to RMB1,007 billion, up 9.2% year on year. Included were RMB254.5 billion of domestic loans, up 8%; RMB15.0 billion of use of foreign funds, up 41.9%; RMB379.1 billion of self-raised funds by enterprises, up 13.1%; and RMB358.5 billion of other funds, up 5%. Of the other funds, deposit and pre-payment funds amounted to RMB202.9 billion, up 1.6%; and individual mortgage loans, RMB98.4 billion, up 13.2%.

In March, China's selling price of housing in 70 large and medium-sized cities dropped 1.3% year on year, down 0.1 percentage points from February, but up 0.2% over the previous month. Of this, selling price of residential buildings dropped 1.9% year on year, down 0.1 percentage points, but up 0.1% month on month.

In March, China's selling price of commodity residential building declined 2.2% year on year, which was 0.1 percentage points steeper than the drop in February, of which the price of ordinary residential buildings dropped 1.8%, and that of high-grade residential buildings down 3.7%. 29 cities showed rises in the selling price of new residential building. Those with big rises were Yinchuan at 7.3%, Jinzhou with 5.0%, Lanzhou and Xining with 4.6%, and Yantai with 3.9%. 41 cities saw a drop in the prices. Cities with a big rate of price drop were Shenzhen with 12.2%, Guangzhou, 8.9%, Shijiazhuang, 7.2%, Guilin, 6.4% and Xiamen, 5.4%.

The selling price of second-hand residential housing dropped 0.4% year on year, further down 0.3 percentage points from February, but up 0.3% month on month.

In March, the climate index of the national real estate development stood at 94.74, down 0.12 points from February, and down 9.98 points from the same period last year. Of this, the real estate development investment classified index was 92, up 0.12 points month on month, but down 12.48 points year on year; the yearly fund source classified index was 93.71, up 1.1 points month on month, but down 8.67 points year on year; land development area classified index was 92.20, down 0.07 points month on month and down 5.91 points year on year; and the vacant housing areas classified index was 92.03, down 3.43 points month on month, and down 19.27 points year on year; and the housing construction area classified index was 93.5, down 1.36 points month on month, and down 14.93 points year on year.