Real Estate Sector Rises Over First Half YearThe index of the real estate sector rose by 0.48 points over the year-ago period to 102.69 points in June, registering the first year-on-year rise over the past 11 months.Figures released today by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show the June index was also 0.49 points higher than in May. Over the first half of this year, the Chinese government's policies to reform the housing system and encourage construction of housing for low-income persons began to take effect. The real estate sector saw increasing investment, improving cash supply, growing land development areas and accelerating growth of the areas of newly-started and just-completed housing. Housing prices were on the rise during the period as the demand for apartments surged. NBS said that the resurgence of real estate development and fast growth of investment are the major factors that nudged the industry forward. The area of unsold housing was 81.15 million square meters by the end of June, increasing 17.7 percent over the same period of last year. The growth rate was much lower than that for the first half of 1999. NBS predicts that the real estate sector will continue to improve in the latter half of the year. However, it said that investment in real estate development is likely to fall and that the index of the real estate sector will remain in a promising zone. NBS figures show that sub-indices of capital supply, newly- completed areas, development areas, income from land transfer, real estate investment and newly-started areas improved in June. Meanwhile, the sub-indices of housing prices and unsold housing declined. By the end of June, the average price of apartments was 2,074 yuan per square meter, 1.2 percent higher than a year ago. |
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