Housing prices up 11.6% in 1st half year
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-07-22 14:23

China's average commercial housing prices grew to 2,701 yuan (US$329) per square meter during the first half of this year, up 11.6 percent over the same period of last year, latest official figures show.

According to the figures released Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics, a total of 110 million square meters of marketable housing units were sold during the first half of this year on the Chinese mainland, up 26.3 percent.

Sales revenues from those units totaled 294.7 billion yuan (US$35.9 billion), up 40.9 percent.

By the end of June, commercial housing vacancy stood at 96.97 million square meters, up 0.2 percent, or down by 5.1 percentage points over the first quarter, according to the bureau.

The bureau said 58.5 percent of the commercial housing had been vacant for more than one year.

The amount of vacant commercial residences or offices dropped while more commercial housing for businesses were vacant.