BEIJING - China’s property investment hit a two-year low in December even as it grew at a solid pace in 2019, adding to recent signs of a slackening in the sector and suggested Beijing might need to offer more stimulus to stabilize a cooling economy.
In December alone, year-on-year growth slowed to 7.3% from 8.4% in November, the weakest pace since December 2017, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by National Bureau of Statistics on Friday. “There was some slowdown in December but we don’t need to be too concerned with property because things are improving on the financing side,” said Yang Yewei, a Beijing-based analyst with Southwest Securities, who noted an increase in mortgages in December.
But analysts say investment in actual construction has slowed notably as developers exercised caution, although they appear still eager to bid for land. Property sales by floor area, a major indicator of demand, fell 0.1% in 2019 from a year earlier, marking the first full-year decline in five years since the last downturn in 2014, when it slumped 7.6%, the NBS data showed on Friday.