China’s property market continued to heat up in the first quarter, with investment soaring and prices quickly rising, especially in big cities, the top economic planning agency said on Tuesday.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said it was becoming more difficult for urban residents to afford homes, with the supply of low-priced or small apartments far from sufficient.
The agency said in a statement on its website (www.ndrc.gov.cn) that the prices of new homes in 70 major cities were up 6.0 per cent from a year earlier in March, compared with 5.9 per cent in February.
Annual price rises for new homes were markedly higher in some cities - 10.7 per cent in Shenzhen, 10.1 per cent in Changsha and 9.9 per cent in Beijing, for example.
Despite the building boom, the agency said construction of new homes was not keeping up with demand. That situation was worsening especially in big cities, it said.
Investment in the property sector jumped 26.9 per cent from a year earlier in the first quarter to 354.4 billion yuan (US$45.8 billion). That compared with 20.2 per cent annual growth in the first quarter of 2006, it said.
Investment in the subcategory of housing, meanwhile, rose by an annual 30.4 per cent in January to March.
The NDRC said that there was plenty of capital available to property developers. In particular, foreign direct investment in the sector was up 192.5 per cent from a year earlier in the first quarter, at 10.26 billion yuan.
Source: The Business Times, 17 April 2007
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