BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The development of real
estate in China has good prospects in the long run despite the sluggish demand,
an expert from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said here
Sunday.
"The development of the real estate has good
prospects in a relatively long term. After rational adjustment, it will show a
more sound development trend," said Wang Yiming, vice president of the Macro
Economy Research Institute of the NDRC.
Amid an estimated continuous urbanization drive in
China, more people may move to cities in the next decade and more, creating
increasing demand for houses, Wang told a press conference at the 2008 Beijing
International Media Center.
Relative policies and measures will be worked out
sooner or later to promote the stable and sound development of the sector, which
is of great significance to the national economy, said Wang.
However, he ruled out any direct links between the
Olympic Games and the housing market, saying the key factors affecting the real
estate is the urbanization drive and reforms of the traditional house
distribution system in the country, which pushed more people to buy commercial
apartments.
Statistics show that real estate investment accounted
for nearly 20 percent of the total investment in fixed assets last year, driven
up by about 5 percent as against 2000, according to the expert.
He said real estate investment increased by more than
30 percent between January and July this year, despite the shrinking housing
demand since the second half of last year.
The housing price decline in some cities has
strengthened a wait-and-see attitude among housing buyers, which retarded
housing sales.
The country's real estate developers, which
experienced huge profits in the past decade, sold out about 260 million square
meters of houses in the first six months this year, and the sales value totaled
one trillion yuan, representing an decrease of 7.2 percent and 3.0 percent,
respectively, over the same period last year, statistics show.
