BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- China's real estate investment jumped 27.4 percent from a year earlier to 526.5 billion yuan (68.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first four months of 2007, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Friday.

    The growth was just 0.5 percentage points higher than the first quarter total, but still 6.1 percentage points higher than the same period last year, according to the NBS.

    Analysts said the investment accelerated due to booming housing demand and robust home price hikes.

    Prices of newly-built commercial residential housing in 70 large- and medium-sized cities climbed six percent year-on-year in the first quarter, according to a survey from NBS and the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner.

    The NBS announced on Friday that the real estate climate indices hit 102.65 points, 1.43 points higher than March.

    It added that, amid record investment by real estate developers, domestic bank loans rose by 26.8 percent year-on-year, while foreign funds also soared 91.7 percent.

    Between January and April, the total area of "developed" land in China rose 4.6 percent to 76.15 million square meters.