Chart of the Day: Growth in Real Estate Sales Falls to Lowest Level in Four Years

Growth in real estate sales fell in 2018 to its lowest level in four years, both in terms of sales value and quantity of floor space sold, official data showed.

Chinese real estate developers had a downbeat 2018, marked by government attempts to cool the country’s property market and broader headwinds such as trade tensions and a credit squeeze.

The total floor space sold in China last year reached 17.2 billion square meters (185 billion square feet) and total value of sales stood around 15 trillion yuan ($2.20 trillion), according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday (link in Chinese). The year-on-year growth rate of total floor space sold was 1.3% in 2018, down from 7.7% the year before, according to the NBS. Growth in the total value of sales went from 13.7% in 2017 to 12.2% in 2018.

The NBS measures three different classifications of real estate — residential space, office space and commercial business. The amount of residential floor space sold increased 2.2% last year, while office floor space went down 8.3% and commercial floor space dropped 6.8%.

The real estate sector, a traditional driver of the Chinese economy, contributed 5.98 trillion yuan to gross domestic product in 2018, up 3.8% from last year, according to data published by the NBS on Tuesday (link in Chinese). Its growth rate was the second-lowest of the 11 sectors surveyed by the NBS.

Contact reporter Charlotte Yang (yutingyang@caixin.com)

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