China's property investment down 7.7% in Q1

BEIJING - China's investment in property development declined 7.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, narrowed from the 16.3-percent drop in the first two months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The total property investment during the period stood at 2.2 trillion yuan ($ 311 billion), the NBS said.

The investment in residential buildings went down 7.2 percent year-on-year to 1.6 trillion yuan in Q1, 8.8 percentage points slower than the decline in the first two months.

Commercial housing sales in terms of floor area totaled 219.78 million square meters from January to March, down 26.3 percent year-on-year, 13.6 percentage points slower than the January-February drop.

In the first three months, commercial housing sales in terms of value fell 24.7 percent to 2.04 trillion yuan, narrowed by 11.2 percentage points comparing with the decrease in the first two months.