China is seeking to maintain stability in the property market this year after the roller coaster ride of 2016, with measures to prevent surges in metropolises and the growing inventories in small cities.File photo:Xinhua

China's property sector investment fell at a faster pace in the first 10 months this year, dropping 8.8 percent year-on-year, compared with the 8-percent decline in the first nine months of 2022, data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday.

From January to October, the sales area of residential housing reached 1.1 billion square meters, down 22.3 percent from 2021, including a 25.5 percent drop in residential properties.

Sales of residential housing stood at 10.8 trillion yuan ($1.53 trillion), down 26.1 percent, and residential housing sales declined 28.2 percent, data from the NBS showed.

In the first 10 months of 2022, the new housing construction area totaled 1.03 billion square meters, a year-on-year drop of 37.8 percent; while housing completion area stood at 465.6 million square meters, falling 18.7 percent from the same period last year. 

Fu Linghui, a spokesperson for the NBS, said on Tuesday that the real estate market has seen some positive changes, as the decline in sales of residential properties and the area of completed houses narrowed, after local governments implemented targeted policies to ensure housing delivery and promote the stable development of the sector.

However, the downward trend of the real estate market continues, Fu said.

"Data of land purchases and new construction starts remains weak, while the demand side showed hesitancy by home buyers," Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Fu noted that the government will actively encourage both housing purchase and renting as well as support housing needs under the principle of "housing is for living in, while not for speculation", in a bid to promote the gradual stabilization and healthy development of the real estate sector.

Recently, the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission released a notice, which detailed 16 measures to ensure stable and healthy development of the country's real estate sector.

Experts noted that with the promulgation of the 16 measures, property-related indicators are expected to improve in the last two months this year.

According to the notice, starting from November 1, property developers' outstanding loans and trust borrowings due within six months can be extended for up to 12 months. In addition, trust companies are encouraged to offer reasonable funding support to developers.

Yan said that the policy will help improve liquidity for housing companies and also prevent the deterioration of development investment.

"The real estate industry is an important sector of the national economy and is closely related to people's livelihood, so timely delivery of housing projects is still the focus of the policymakers," Yan noted.

Global Times