China's real estate market expected to adjust in H2

China's real estate market is expected to usher in a new period of adjustment during the second half of this year, Economic Information Daily reported.

Adhering to the policy that "houses are for living, not for speculation", local governments have kept differentiated policies based on local conditions, and made obvious achievement in tightening control of the real estate market.

The market saw pickup in March and April. However, it didn't gather enough momentum and showed some signs of cooling down in May, Wang Yeqiang, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in a signed article published by the newspaper.

Last month's data also indicated the rebound is not stable, Wang said, adding that the market is likely to enter a new period of adjustment.

During the first five months of this year, the property market remained stable overall, with property sales measured by floor area showing negative growth and sale prices registering slower growth.

Between January and May, sales in commercial residential buildings reached 560 million square meters, down 1.6 percent year-on-year. Among them, sales in residential buildings, office buildings and commercial buildings went down 0.7 percent, 12.2 percent and 12.9 percent respectively.

Land purchase area and land prices experienced big declines. During the first five months, the land areas purchased by property developers fell 33.2 percent from a year earlier, the biggest decline since 1998. Meanwhile, land prices fell 35.6 percent year-on-year, marking the biggest drop since the data was released in 2004.

Hot investment in residential buildings and sluggish investment in commercial properties still continued.

Real estate investment increased 11.2 percent year-on-year in the first five months of the year, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. The pace was slower than the 11.9 percent expansion recorded in the January-April period but was faster than the 9.5 percent growth seen last year.

Among them, investment in residential housing rose 16.3 percent. However, investment in office building and commercial housing both saw negative growth, registering -3.6 percent and -9.7 percent growth respectively.

Wang said the real estate market should strengthen real-time monitoring, predictions and warnings. Some second- and third-tier cities saw a surge in housing prices as China's urbanization process gathered pace. Wang said if the price rise is supported by fundamentals, the risk is controllable; if not, the government should improve risk prevention.