China property sales rebound 13.1pc in November amid easing measures

Mainland property sales revenue picked up last month after a dip in the previous month, pointing to tentative signs of a recovery following new policy measures to revive the key sector.

Property sales rose 13.1 per cent in November from a month earlier, compared with October's decline of 5.4 per cent, but still fell far short of the 41.5 per cent jump in September, according to calculations by the South China Morning Post based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

"China's property market faces big challenges as the economy slows and restructures," Liu Zhifeng, head of the China Real Estate Association, told a forum this week.

The top leaders, wrapping up the three-day Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing on Thursday, made no mention of the real estate sector when they laid out the policy priorities for next year.

The statistics agency said real estate investment grew 11.9 per cent in the first 11 months from a year earlier, slowing from a rise of 12.4 per cent in the January-October period.

Meanwhile, developers refrained from buying more land. They spent 865.7 billion yuan (HK$1.1 trillion) on land reserves in the first 11 months, 0.1 per cent less from a year earlier.