Property prices firm up in first quarter

SHANGHAI: Property transactions soared over the past quarter in major cities on the Chinese mainland, but analysts are divided on what has led to the sales pickup.

According to statistics from Real Estate Information Circle of E-House China R&D Institute, during the first quarter of this year, commercial property sales in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen all exceeded the growth rate of the same period in 2008.

During the first quarter, the total floor space of commercial residential space sold in Beijing was 2.951 million sq m, up 54.6 percent year-on-year; in Shanghai it was 2.817 million sq m, up 34 percent year-on-year, while in Shenzhen, the southern city which was hit hardest in last year's market slump, the trading volume soared 239.42 percent over 2008 to 1.688 million sq m.