Housing prices rose by 6.7 percent year-on-year to 2,677 yuan (323.7 US dollars) per square meter, according to a monthly report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Thursday.

The report said the price of residential housing rose to 2,481 yuan (300 US dollars) per square meter in the first quarter, 6.5 percent higher than the same period last year. Prices of office buildings and housing for business operations also rose by 24.8 percent and 9.1 percent respectively.

The total acreage of sold property rose 35.4 percent in the first three months, said the report.

Investment in real estate amounted to 182 billion yuan (22 billion US dollars) from January to March, jumping 41.1 percent, which was 6.2 percentage points higher than that of last year but 9.1 percentage points lower than the year-on-year growth rates in the first two months.

The domestic loans for property investment also rose 30.7 percent year-on-year to 87.5 billion yuan (10.6 billion US dollars), but the growth rate was 20.7 percentage points lower than last year, indicating an emerging influence of the central bank's tightening polices over real estate development.

Source: Xinhua