The volume of real-estate sales in the first quarter rose 8.2% from a year earlier to 113.09 million square meters, or about 135.71 million square yards, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday. Residential property sales increased 8.7%, though the commercial market remained weak, with sales of office property down 13.1%. Property sales had declined sharply for most of 2008, but started to turn around at the beginning of this year.
Property prices remain down but are starting to stabilize. The statistics bureau said the average housing price in 70 Chinese cities rose 0.2% in March from February. That is the first gain after seven consecutive monthly declines, though the price index remains 1.3% below its level in March last year.
