Property investment perks up in May

Investment in property development rose 18.5% year-on-year in the first five months of 2012 as the decline in the property market slowed, The Wall Street Journal reported. Investment for the month of May was up 18.2% from the same period last year, rebounding from 9.2% growth in April. Land sales, counted as part of property investment, rose in May from the month before but were still below level from last year. Overall property sales for the five months were down 9.1% from 2011 levels, but the decline slowed to just 0.7% for the month of May. “May’s data provides hopeful signs. We believe the property market in major cities bottomed out in March and April,” said Rosealea Yao, an analyst at HK Dragonomics. “The national data tend to lag, so I would say the country’s property market has bottomed out.”