New home sales up more than 10 percent in 2019: report

New home sales in China posted double-digit annual growth in 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a report released on Friday.

Between January and December, about 13.94 trillion yuan (US$2.03 trillion) worth of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, were sold around the country, a year-on-year rise of 10.3 percent.

By area, new homes sold during the 12-month period increased 1.5 percent year on year to 1.5 billion square meters, the bureau's data showed.

Across the country, western China was the best performer, dwarfing other regions in terms of both value and area.

Sales of new homes by value in western China jumped 10.8 percent from 2018, compared with 5.8 percent growth in eastern China, a 4.9 percent rise in central China and a 2.8 percent gain in northeast China.

By area, western China was the only region to secure year-on-year growth. New homes sold in western China rose 4.4 percent from a year ago; while east, central and northeast China all suffered setbacks, falling 1.5 percent, 1.3 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively, from 2018, the bureau's data show.

"Talent-attracting initiatives launched in a number of western cities helped boost new home sales in the region while some mild adjustments in policies by local governments also lifted buyers' sentiment there," said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co.

On the inventory side, newly built homes available for sale as of the end of December stood at 224.73 million square meters, a year-on-year decrease of 10.4 percent.

Investment in residential property development rose 13.9 percent to 9.7 trillion yuan. That compares with the 13.4 percent rise in 2018 and the 14.4 percent increase in the first 11 months of 2019.