NBS: China's Jan-Feb FAI up 4.1%, property down 9.8% YoY

In the first two months of this year, the contribution of privately-owned enterprises to China's FAI remained largely flat on year at Yuan 2.67 trillion, accounting for 50.8% of the total. The tertiary industry attracted the most funding among the three economic sectors, with the amount gaining 0.7% on year to Yuan 3.46 trillion. Of that, the funding in infrastructure construction climbed by 5.6% on year.

As for the property industry, about Yuan 805.6 billion of the funding went into residential housing projects over January-February, down by 9.2% on year, though the decline narrowed by 1.3 percentage points compared to the rate for 2024, according to the NBS data.

In the past two months, China's total area of newly-launched property projects slumped by 29.6% on year to 66.14 million sq m, with that of residential housing projects also sliding by 28.9% on year to 48.21 million sq m.

Meanwhile, property sales by floor area across the country fell by 5.1% on year to 107.46 million sq m, with the decline slowing notably from last year's 12.9% slump. The on-year fall in residential housing sales also narrowed from 14.1% in 2024 to 3.4% for January-February. 

By region, East China still ranked the top with property sales of 45.39 million sq m in the past two months, though the figure was lower by 7.3% from one year before.

By end-February, inventories in China's property market rose by 5.1% on year to 798.91 million sq m. Its property market climate index, though staying in the negative zone, climbed for the eighth consecutive month to reach 93.8 by February, slightly higher than the 92.78 reading in last December.

Written by Carly Chen, chenziyi@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com