New homes sales nationwide continue to improve

New home sales continued to pick up in China amid improving sentiment among buyers, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

Between January and April, about 3.4 trillion yuan (US$490 billion) worth of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, were sold across the country, an increase of 10.6 percent from same period a year ago. 

The area of new homes sold in the first four months totaled 368 million square meters, growth of 0.4 percent from a year earlier. That, however, compares with an annual slip of 0.6 percent registered in the first quarter.

"With recovering momentum among real estate developers as well as generally improved liquidity in the market, more home seekers around the country decided not to sit on the sidelines any more amid an increase in new supply," 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 April stood at 243 million square meters, down 14.7 percent from a year earlier. That compares with 247 million square meters recorded as of the end of March.

Investment in residential property development, which represented 72.8 percent of total real estate investment, rose 16.8 percent year-on-year to 2.5 trillion yuan between January and April.