Property sector slump continues through September

China’s property sector slowed significantly in September as the country’s debt-laden developers slashed spending and demand from home buyers fell, reports The Wall Street Journal. Investments made by property developers fell 3.5% year-on-year in September, according to data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

Home sales by value fell 16.9% in September from a year earlier, while the floor area of new construction projects that were started in the month fell 13.5%. Both measures had already dropped sharply year-over-year in August, falling 19.7% and 17%, respectively.

Monday’s data builds on recent reports from individual real-estate companies showing punishing drops in sales. It also underscores how property-market weakness, already evident in lackluster August figures, hasn’t abated as the industry enters what is traditionally a much stronger period for home sales. The data paint a bleak picture for China’s property market and the many developers that had banked on strong housing sales to help pay off large amounts of borrowings.