Expanded rental market could help stabilize real estate prices

ACCORDING TO A STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS, China's property sector accounted for a smaller proportion of the economy in the third quarter of the year, thanks to a series of purchase restrictions adopted by local governments as cooling measures. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Saturday:

The latest NBS report marks a much-anticipated turning point in China's real estate market. The property sector registered 3.9 percent growth in the third quarter, a year-on-year decline of 4.9 percentage points. And the added value of the property sector amounted to 1.32 trillion yuan ($200 billion) between July and September, contributing 6.23 percent of the country's GDP; the figure in the second quarter was 6.86 percent.

The dwindling proportion of property sales in China's economic growth shows that the restrictions on house purchases, which have been ramped up nationwide to prevent volatility in the real estate market, are now taking effect.