PROPERTY investment in China was resilient in April as developers rushed to boost their land inventories in the wake of looser credit and purchasing rules, but demand for new homes remained weak in a reflection of the broader slowdown in the economy. Real estate investment is a key driver of growth in the world’s second-largest economy and solidity in the sector could cushion the impact of a vigorous multi-year government crackdown on debt and a sudden flare-up in trade tensions with the United States. However, some analysts say bubble risks are rising as home prices continue to climb. The data were one of the few bright spots in a raft of other official economic indicators released yesterday, which added to signs that the economy lost momentum at the start of the second quarter. That has heightened fears about the outlook as trade tensions with the United States unexpectedly escalated last week. China’s real estate investment, which mainly focuses on the residential sector but also includes commercial and office space, rose 12 percent in April from a year earlier, unchanged from the growth in March, according to calculation based on data released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday. For the first four months, property investment grew 11.9 percent year on year, compared with a 10.3 percent gain in the same period a year earlier. China’s property market has seen a recent resurgence as some local governments loosen restrictions on home purchases in a bid to boost economic activity. (SD-Agencies) |