China’s Real Estate Investments Fall for First Time Since 1997

China’s real estate investments fell 10% year-on-year in 2022 to 13.29 trillion yuan ($1.98 trillion), the first decline since records began in 1997, official data showed Tuesday.

Residential property investment fell 9.5% year-on-year last year to 10.06 trillion yuan. Land sales by area dropped 53.4% to 100 million square meters, and sales by value dropped 48.4% to 916.6 billion yuan, both the biggest declines since 1997, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.