China is seeking to maintain stability in the property market this year after the roller coaster ride of 2016, with measures to prevent surges in metropolises and the growing inventories in small cities.File photo:Xinhua

Though China's real estate sector saw a significant fall in recent months, it has seen "positive changes" in May and could help stabilize the Chinese economy in the second half of 2022, an official of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.

Fu Linghui, a spokesperson of the NBS, noted that although the property market has maintained a downward trend this year, government support measures to stabilize land prices, home prices and expectations have promoted a month-on-month recovery in May.

"For instance, the sales area of commercial properties in May showed a better-than-expected increase of 25.8 percent compared with the previous month, indicating a recovery of transactions in May," Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

But despite the January-May decline, the May data sent positive signals as government support measures kicked in, according to experts.

NBS data showed that in the first five months, commercial home sales totaled 4.83 trillion yuan ($719 billion), down 31.5 percent year-on-year, with residential home sales narrowing 34.5 percent.

The total sales area for commercial housing stood at 507.4 million square meters, down 23.6 percent year-on-year, with the decline rate expanding 2.7 percentage points compared with the first four months.

From January to May, real estate development investment reached 5.21 trillion yuan, a year-on-year drop of 4.0 percent. The decline rate expanded 1.3 percentage points from the first four months.

Fu said despite the decline in real estate investment, stabilizing land and home prices and market expectations have promoted the healthy development of the sector, with the principle that "housing is for living, not for speculation."  

Localities are speeding up the implementation of measures to meet the reasonable housing needs of residents, coupled with a reduction of mortgage loan interest rates, which are conducive to stabilizing the real estate market, Fu added.

Fu said that as the real estate market has seen some positive changes, the long industry chain of the sector will drive related industries, so it is expected to stabilize the national economy in the second half of this year. 

As the real estate market stabilizes, it will support the national economy in the second half of 2022 through a gradual increase in property development investment and home sales, which will contribute to consumption, experts said.