[photopress:realestateboom.jpg,full,alignright]Despite all the efforts of the government to hose down the overheated market China’s real estate investment soared by 24.3 percent in the first three quarters to RMB1.3 trillion ($165 billion.) This according to the People’s Bank of China in its third-quarter monetary policy report.
Investments in commodity residential housing went up 29.5 percent between January and September. Which is 8 percentage points higher than the same time last year. Other areas did not lag behind. Investments in office and retail properties increased by 15.8 percent and 16.9 percent.
There was one, small, sign that the new controls are working somewhat. The area of land acquired by property developers was 3 percent less in the first nine months. It dropped, but not catastrophically, to 241 million square meters. On the other hand, finished space surged by 34 percent to 163 million square meters.
Not everything is rosy.
China had 121 million square meters of vacant commodity housing at the end of September, up 11.7 percent year on year. The area of vacant commodity residential housing increased by 9.7 percent to 66 million square meters. And at the end of September, commercial bank’s outstanding loans to property businesses totaled RMB3.6 trillion, up 24.35 percent year on year.
Source: Xinhua
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