Nov 19 (Reuters) - Beijing has been working for more than two years to cool red-hot property prices but the campaign may now be adding to stress on the cooling economy and could offset the impact of any fresh policy easing.
Investment in the property sector accounted for 14.4 percent of China's gross domestic product in the first nine months of 2012.
Here is a look at the latest news, numbers and more from China's real estate market.
REUTERS NEWS
Nov 18 - Home prices in China rose 0.05 percent in October from September, according to calculations based on official data, adding to evidence of a recent, mild recovery in the country's property market and frustrating the government's efforts to temper prices.
Nov 15 - China's urbanisation could cure its economic imbalances, a new study shows, putting it on a path to domestic consumption-led growth within five years to replace three decades of investment and export-driven development that stoked global trade tensions.
Nov 12 - China aims to start building at least 5 million units of public homes next year and has no plans to relax its purchase restrictions in the real estate market, its housing minister said.
Nov 9 - China's real estate investment growth quickened in October while property sales revenues jumped, affirming signs of a mild recovery in the sector and boding well for the broad economy.
Nov 8 - There was no real risk of widespread defaults on loans made in the real estate sector, Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, told a forum at a gathering of China's ruling Communist Party.
Nov 6 - China Vanke Co Ltd, the country's largest real estate developer by sales, said sales jumped 33 percent in October from a year earlier to 13.7 billion yuan ($2.14 billion) after rolling out seven new projects.
Nov 1 - Average home prices in China's 100 biggest cities edged up for a fifth straight month in October, a private survey showed.
DATA
- China has started construction on 7.22 million units of affordable homes by the end of October, completing 5.05 million units and investing 1.08 trillion yuan ($173.20 billion) on such homes, data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development showed.
- Revenues of land sales from China's top 10 cities reached 49.1 billion yuan ($7.87 billion)in October, up 32 percent from a year ago, according to CRIC, a private consultancy.
- China's outstanding loans for affordable housing reached 613.9 billion yuan as of the end of September, accounting for over sixty percent of total investment on such homes, according to data from China Banking Regulatory Commission.
- About 27 local governments have let home buyers borrow more from the government's housing fund, which lends at lower rates than commercial banks, data from a property consultancy Centaline showed.
CHINESE PRESS
Nov 13 - China's outstanding property trusts reached 677 billion yuan by the end of September, down 0.5 percent from a year ago and absorbing 11 percent of the total trust investment, data from China Trustee Association showed. (Securities Daily)
Nov 9 - Second-hand residential property prices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were rising consecutively in the past seven months, with Shanghai and Guangzhou's prices rising more than 1 percent in October compared to September. (China Securities Journal)
Nov 8 - Property companies Poly Real Estate (Group) Co Ltd and Gemdale Corp said new contract volumes in October rose 42 percent and 37 percent, respectively.(China Securities Journal)
Nov 5 - China's property market will not see a big rebound in the future as the government will keep property curbs in place, Xia Bin, a former adviser to the central bank, said at a forum. (The Beijing News)
THEY SAID
-- "There is obviously still a lot of volume to come on line, got a pent-up supply in residential sector across China...We don't believe prices are going to rebound very strongly at all across China in the next 12 months." (Jane Murray, Head of Research, Asia Pacific, Jones Lang LaSalle, told a news conference)
-- "If China's government does not adjust existing property policies to increase effective supply of land, the market supply and demand will deteriorate in the future." (Ren Zhiqiang, Chairman of Huayuan Property, told a forum )
($1 = 6.2356 Chinese yuan) (Reporting By Xiaoyi Shao and Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)