Real estate investment increased by 11.8% in the quarter.
In March, the prices of new buildings in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen rose by 4.2% year-on-year, an increase of 0.1 percentage points over February, indicating that property prices have accelerated. Mao Shengyong, a spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, pointed out that the acceleration of real estate investment and new construction area in the first quarter represents an increase in supply, which will help alleviate the pressure of rising property prices in some areas.
The data of 70 residential properties in large and medium-sized cities showed that in addition to the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the price of new buildings in second-tier cities rose by 12.2% year-on-year, and the price of new buildings in third-tier cities also rose by 11.4% year-on-year. . Second-hand property prices in second- and third-tier cities rose by 8.2% and 8.4% respectively. Mao Shengyong said that property prices in the country were generally stable, and the increase in some regions was slightly expanded. However, the increase in most places narrowed, and the difference in property prices in various regions was due to uneven development.
New construction area has risen significantly
Mao Shengyong also said that the growth rate of real estate development investment has been maintained at around 10% last year. The first quarter increased by 11.8% to 2.38 trillion yuan, a slight increase in growth rate. The main reason is that property prices are stable and the new construction area is rising, representing real estate. The increase in supply will help ease the pressure on property prices in some areas. The newly started area in the first quarter was 387 million square meters, a significant increase of 11.9%, up 6 percentage points year-on-year.
He explained that the new demand from the change of buildings (improvement demand), boarding (rigid demand) and new urbanization will continue to support the property market, but at the same time it must control speculative and investment demand for housing. Strengthen the role of the local government, because of the city’s policy.”
The National Bureau of Statistics also announced yesterday that the sales area of commercial housing in the first quarter was 928.92 million square meters, down 0.9% year-on-year. Commercial housing sales were 2.7 trillion yuan, up 5.6%, of which residential sales increased by 7.5%, office sales fell by 13.0%, and commercial business buildings fell by 2.6%.
Although government policy calls for controlling property prices to rise, Zhou Hongli, a senior economist at DBS Hong Kong, believes that the property market is a key industry and the government will not allow property prices to slow down significantly. For example, individual cities have relaxed their purchase restrictions, indicating that there is still much room for easing.