Growth in real estate investment and property sales accelerated in China last year, a sign the booming property market has resisted Beijing’s sustained efforts to cool it down.
Real estate investment, which accounted for 15 per cent of China’s gross domestic product last year, rose 19.8 per cent from a year earlier, compared with 16.2 per cent in 2012, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
That compared with annual increases of 1.8 per cent in floor space and 10 per cent in value in 2012.
China’s property sector is one of the few bright spots in a slowing economy, and the government has tried to tread a fine line between reining in rising property prices that threaten affordability for average wage earners and stifling economic growth elsewhere.
“Property investment has been one of the main drivers of the stabilising economy since the third quarter of last year,” said Shen Jianguang, chief China economist with Mizuho Securities in Hong Kong.