BEIJING, July 16 -- The growth of China's real estate investment slowed down in the first half of the year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.

NBS data showed that property investment rose 14.1 percent year on year in the first six months, 0.6 percentage points down from the first five months and 2.7 percentage points down from the first quarter.

For residential property, investment growth registered a decline of 0.9 percentage points from the first five months.

China's property market has kept cooling since the beginning of the year.