Jan-Feb investment in real estate in China rises 38.3% year-on-year

Potential buyers are viewing a property model in Huai’an, Jiangsu Province. Photo: Xinhua

Investments in property, plant and equipment in China rose 35.0 percent annually for the first two months of the year, with real estate investments showing the largest increase of 38.3 percent year-over-year, accounting for over 50 percent according to official statistics on Monday 30 percent of total fixed investment.

From January to February, real estate development investments nationwide were 1.3986 trillion yuan ($ 215.2 billion), up 38.3 percent from 2020 and 15.7 percent in January to February 2019, with an average two-year growth of 7.6 percent. Of that total, residential investment was 1.0387 trillion yuan, up 41.9 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.

The total area of ​​commercial properties sold nationwide was 173.63 million square meters in January and February, 104.9 percent above the previous year’s figure. Commercial property sales reached 1.9151 trillion yuan, up 133.4 percent from 2020.

The consumption associated with housing construction also increased. Consumption of building and decoration materials rose 52.8 percent year over year to 22.1 billion yuan in the first two months, according to NBS data.

Based on a simple arithmetic average of NBS property prices published on Monday, the price index for new residential buildings in 70 cities rose 0.4 percent in February from the previous month and up 4.1 percent from the previous year.

“These are signs that house prices are warming. Due to recent market dynamics, there are indications of increasing house buying policies in some cities with excessive house price speculation that are conducive to house price stability. Follow-up is needed for land supplies, housing supplies and other aspects, “Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-House China R&D Institute, told the Global Times on Monday.

In the first two months of 2021, national investments in property, plant and equipment, excluding rural households, were 4.5236 trillion yuan, up 35.0 percent from the previous year and 3.5 percent from the first two months of 2019 .

Infrastructure investments rose by 36.6 percent compared to the previous year, while those in manufacturing rose by 37.3 percent.

Global times