The worst may be over for China's property sector, analysts said on Thursday, in response to official figures that showed commercial housing sales surged in the first seven months of this year.
The figures indicated a recovery in demand, while property investment showed signs of stabilization, the data showed. Sales rose 13.4 percent year-on-year to 4.12 trillion yuan ($643.1 billion) in the period, 3.4 percentage points faster than the first-half growth rate, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.
Home sales by area grew 6.9 percent year-on-year, with transactions rising 16.8 percent year-on-year in the first seven months, considerably higher than the rate for office buildings, NBS data showed.
The real estate market had been weak since 2014 due to slack demand and tough government restrictions.
Hu Huaru, a property analyst at China Galaxy Securities Co, said in a report released on Thursday that there is little room for further weakening of property investment as the market gradually stabilizes.
Xu Gao, chief economist at China Everbright Securities Co, said in an e-mail sent to the Global Times on Thursday that a loose monetary policy in the second half is expected to promote the recovery of infrastructure spending and help the property sector to recover.
Li Jiao, senior statistician at the NBS, attributed improving property sales to strong performances in key cities and rapid sales growth in the residential sector, according to the agency's official website.
"China's property recovery is far from balanced. For now, it remains mostly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities, while the bulk of excess inventory is in third-tier or smaller cities," Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS AG in Hong Kong, said in an e-mail sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.
