Central region records 8.4% rise in property investment

China's central region's real estate investment and sales remained high during the first three quarters, however, the market showed signs of consolidation, 21st Century Business Herald reported.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that during the first three quarters, real estate investment totaled 1.86 trillion yuan ($267 billion) in the central region, up 8.4 percent year-on-year. Commercial housing sales measured by floor area jumped 10.2 percent to 18,612 square meters, while sales volume rose 22.7 percent to 2.26 trillion yuan.

Ouyang Jie, senior vice-president of property developer Future Land, told the newspaper that after several years of destocking, this year, land supply picked up some momentum in the central region. Next year, the relation between market supply and demand is expected to maintain stable, he added.

The central region consists of six provinces: Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Shanxi, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

During the first three quarters of this year, the real estate investment in these six provinces respectively reached 484 billion yuan, 474.8 billion yuan, 360.8 billion yuan, 273.8 billion yuan, 162 billion yuan and 105.5 billion yuan.

In terms of year-on-year growth, the six provinces showed differentiated performance, with -0.6 percent in Henan, 16.2 percent in Anhui, 4.7 percent in Hubei, 15.6 percent in Hunan, 9.5 percent in Jiangxi and 14.9 percent in Shanxi.

Hunan, Shanxi and Jiangxi provinces all saw a surge in real estate investment, while Henan became the only province in the central region that showed negative growth.

Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, which used to have poor performance in the real estate market, have seen rapid development in recent years, attracting more resources from property investment, said Yan.

Differentiated investments resulting from market sentiment also is reflected in the number of new homes developers plan to start.

During the first three quarters of this year, Central China's Hunan province saw the accumulative floor area of homes salted for construction rise 51 percent year-on-year, while the figure fell 0.8 percent in Anhui province.