China's property investment cools in August

Vanke cashing out as commercial yields stay low

Lower prices challenge developers

BEIJING -- The growth of China's property sector investment continued to slow in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday.

NBS data showed real estate investment rose 13.2 percent year on year in the first eight months of 2014 to 5.9 trillion yuan (%959.44 billion), 0.5 percentage points slower than the growth in the January-July period.

Investment in residential property, which accounted for 68.1 percent of the total, rose 12.4 percent year on year, compared with a 13.3-percent growth rate for the first seven months.

The slower growth was accompanied by a faster decline in area and volume of property sales.

The total area of property sales stood at 649.9 million square meters in January-August, down 8.3 percent from a year ago and 0.7 percentage points steeper than the decline seen in January-July.

Property sales volume fell 8.9 percent year on year during the period to 4.17 trillion yuan, compared with a drop of 8.2 percent in January-July, according to the NBS.

China's property sector has been cooling since the beginning of the year, with key indicators such as investment slowing for seven months straight and an increasing number of cities posting falling house prices.

Out of 70 major Chinese cities, 64 saw month-on-month price declines for new homes in July, compared with 55 in June, according to the latest official data.

On the other hand, the government has stepped up construction of affordable housing and shantytown renovation projects to help boost regional growth. By the end of July, 3.4 million units of affordable housing had been completed, or 70 percent of the government's annual target.