BEIJING: China’s property sales surged in the first two months of the year despite government measures to cool the market, though growth in real estate investment showed signs of easing, according to official data on Tuesday. Property sales by area rose 25.1 percent year-on-year in January and February. That was above the 22.5 percent annual gain in 2016, which was the strongest annual growth in seven years thanks to a property boom in top-tier cities. It was also a marked surge from December, when property sales by area rose 11.8 percent from a year earlier, according to Reuters’ calculations. After sharp home price rises last year, China’s policymakers have started to worry about overheating in the property market and the risk of a sudden and sharp correction that would knock the economy. Many local governments in cities which have seen the sharpest price rises have rolled out a series of restrictions in the past few months on buying and ownership.
The property readings were part of a raft of data released by China on Tuesday which showed the broader economy remained on a solid growth path early in the year. Real estate investment grew 8.9 percent in the first two months of 2017 from the same period a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That compares with 11.1 percent in December alone, according to Reuters’ calculations, and 6.9 percent in all of 2016. Real estate investment directly affects about 40 other business sectors in China, and is considered to be a crucial driver for the world’s second-largest economy. Central bank data last week showed household loans, mostly mortgages, accounted for 25.7 percent of new loans in February, down from 37 percent in January and 50 percent in 2016, adding to signs of cooling in the housing sector. China’s banking regulator and central bank have told banks to curtail new mortgage lending, state-owned newspaper Economic Information Daily reported on Monday, citing unnamed banking sources.
