China's real estate market was still in a state of adjustment in the first quarter of this year, with policies aimed at supporting the sector's development continuing to take effect, Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
Investment in property development fell 9.5 percent year on year in the first quarter, according to the NBS.
Sheng said that the floor space of newly-built commercial buildings sold reached approximately 138 million square meters in March, marking the highest monthly figure over the past year.
"Since the beginning of this year, local governments have intensified their efforts to implement policies that support the stable development of the real estate sector, including easing restrictions on property purchases and reducing loan interest rates on housing provident funds. Since the beginning of this year, more than 30 cities have proposed the policy of trade-ins of old houses for new ones. With the joint efforts of various local governments, in March this year, the decline in the floor space and value of real estate sold narrowed by 1.1 and 1.7 percentage points compared with January and February, respectively. Data from these three aspects showed that the effects of measures to support stability of the property sector continued to be felt," he said.
Sheng said that the country's continuous urbanization process would underpin the real estate market.
"With the improvement of people's living standards and the deepening of urbanization, there will be strong demand for buying their first home or improving their housing situation in the Chinese real estate market. The country's property market still has the conditions to sustain healthy and continuous development. We need to take a more rational view on adjustments for real estate," he said.