China's property market shows signs of improvement in first three quarters: NBS official

China's property market showed signs of stabilizing in the first three quarters of this year, as the decline in key sector indicators has narrowed, suggesting that the measures implemented to boost the housing market are having an effect, said an official from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.

At a press conference in Beijing, Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the NBS, said that a raft of pro-property market policies are kicking in, as evidenced by narrowing declines in property development investment and in real estate sales.

The investment in property market in China fell 10.1 percent year on year in the first nine months of the year, with the decline narrowing from the January-August period.

From January to September, the decline in the sold floor space of new commodity housing narrowed by 1.9 percentage points compared to the first half of the year, marking four consecutive months of narrowing. Meanwhile, the decline in housing sales narrowed for five consecutive months.

According to Sheng, the confidence in the property market has strengthened and expectations have improved.

"Recently, we conducted a special survey among real estate development enterprises and agencies in 70 large and medium-sized cities across China. In September, the percentage of real estate agents selling new homes who expressed optimism about their business operations increased by 10 percent compared to the previous month, and those selling pre-owned homes up by 6.5 percent. This indicates a significant boost in confidence. So, we have reason to believe that the property market is poised for positive changes," said Sheng.

China has rolled out a slew of policies to bolster the real estate sector, including cutting minimum down payment ratios, abolishing the commercial mortgage rate floors for first and second homes, and establishing a re-lending facility that supports local state-owned enterprises in using such funds to purchase commodity homes for affordable housing.

China's property market shows signs of improvement in first three quarters: NBS official

Maintaining internal unity and external deterrence are two important means for Iran when facing its enemies, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday.

He made the remarks at an open session of the legislative body in Tehran, stressing that the "era of proportionate responses" has come to an end, according to the Iranian parliament's ICANA news agency.

"The Americans must have understood that the era of proportionate responses has ended. Our strikes against the aggressor's bases in recent operations were only the beginning," Qalibaf said.

"The rules of the game have changed, and from now on, any aggression against Iran's interests and security will receive a faster, heavier, and more painful response," he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday threatened Iran with a devastating response if it attacked Israel and said his government remained determined to bring down Tehran's leadership.

"If Iran makes a mistake and attacks us, it will suffer a blow it cannot even imagine," Netanyahu told ministers at a cabinet meeting ahead of the Jewish New Year.

Tensions escalated between Tehran and Washington recently after the United States carried out strikes against southern Iranian regions, and Iran launched retaliatory attacks on U.S. regional bases. The strikes were followed by naval confrontations between the two sides on Saturday.

On Feb. 28, Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and other Iranian cities. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and U.S. bases and assets in the region, and tightened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran, Israel threaten each other with more strikes if attacked