Real estate investment and commercial housing sales in China have both declined since the start of 2022, as the market continues to reel from the impact of the Evergrande Group debt debacle as well as renewed Covid lockdowns in Shanghai.
National real estate development investment for the period from January to April totalled 3.9154 trillion yuan, for a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 2.7%, and the first decline since June 2020, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on 16 May.
Residential investment stood at 2.9527 trillion yuan for the first four months of the year, for a decline of 2.1%.
Commercial housing sales floorspace for the first four months of the year totalled 397.68 million square metres, for a YoY plunge of 20.9%.
The residential sales floorspace fell 25.4%, while the commercial housing sales amount was 3.7789 trillion yuan, for a YoY decline of 29.5%.
Looking at the month of April alone, the commercial housing sales floorspace and amount fell by 39.0% and 46.6% YoY respectively, accelerating by 21.3 and 20.4 percentage points respectively compared to April.
The commercial housing sales floorspace and the absolute scale of the commercial housing sales amount are both at their lowest point for the period since 2016.
