Economy
Land sales top 1.4t in 2009, up 43% from 2008
By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-14 15:03
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China's land sales increased by 43.2 percent year-on-year in 2009 to 1.4 trillion yuan ($209 billion), of which 18.71 billion yuan was used in building low-rent houses, accounting for 1.5 percent of the total, according to a statement Tuesday by the Ministry of Finance.
Coastal regions made up two-thirds of the total land sales, the ministry said. The sales figure was down 19.7 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2009, but increased 110.9 percent in the second half.
Expenditure in land sales increased by 28.9 percent year-on-year to 1.2 trillion yuan, of which 498.6 billion yuan was used in compensation for land acquisitions and housing demolitions, accounting for 40.4 percent – the highest – of the total.
Yin Zhongli, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China's urban residents' housing consumption has totally changed as the country reached its housing reform goals of marketization and monetization in 2000, the Beijing News reported Wednesday.
Governments and enterprises have taken a wealth of 10 trillion yuan out of Chinese residents' pockets through the housing policy, and if this should continue, the percentage of domestic consumption in China's GDP will gradually decrease, Yin warned.
