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Residential sales dip in first four months

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-31 11:15

China saw commercial residential sales dip in the first four months this year while real estate investment in central and western regions outpaced that in the eastern part.

The area of residential buildings sold in the January-April period fell 4 percent year on year to 136.6 million square meters, compared with a 16.6-percent growth in the same period last year, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Friday.

Residential buyers had somewhat taken a wait-and-see attitude in the first quarter as housing price rises generally slowed down and transactions continued shrinking as a result of macro-control policies, according to an NDRC report published in April.

The NDRC, China's top economic planner, said the country completed the construction of 84.5 million square meters of commercial residential houses in the first four months, 20.2 percent up year on year.

Real estate investment soared 44.8 percent in central China and 42.6 percent in western China, while the booming eastern areas posted a 26.1-percent growth.

In the period, the nation completed 695.2 billion yuan ($99.3 billion) of real estate investment in total, 32.1 percent up year on year and 4.7 percentage points higher.