Construction: Measures fail to slow investment rise

(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-27 14:09

Investment growth in China's real estate industry accelerated in the first nine months of the year, according to the nation's top planning agency, indicating that central government cooling measures have yet to take effect.

Property investment rose 24.3 percent, or 2.1 percentage points faster than a year earlier, in the nine months to September 30, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement published on its Website on Tuesday. Growth picked up from 24 percent through August, Bloomberg News said.

The government's measures including restricting land supply and lending and imposing new taxes have failed to cool investment and property prices that more than doubled since 2000. Property prices in China's 70 major cities rose 5.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to a survey published in the statement. Shanghai is the only city where property prices have fallen, the survey showed.

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