Huawei Photo: VCG

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies on Monday rushed to clarify that its newly established real estate firm will only focus on housing for the company's staff, and is not part of a move into the property sector. 

The new firm has already drawn widespread attention. Media reports on Monday said Huawei had set up a real estate firm with registered capital of 1.5 billion yuan ($208.62 million), instantly setting off speculation about the tech giant's plans for the real estate market. 

Asked about the move, a source familiar with the matter told the Global Times on Monday that the newly established firm will focus on construction and management of housing for Huawei's staff, rather than operating as a real estate business. 

"The company is mainly responsible for the construction and management of supporting housing for Huawei staff, and has no attributes for external real estate business," said the source. 

China's real estate market is currently going through a tough period, and Huawei has been striving to deal with the crackdown imposed by the US government. 

China's property investment fell 7.9 percent year-on-year to 5.86 trillion yuan ($819.8 billion) in the first half of the year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In the first 20 days of July, new home transactions continued to drop, falling 40 percent on a yearly basis, according to data from the E-house China R&D Institute, an industry information provider. 

The downward trends in the real estate industry, which is critical for China's overall economic development given its sheer size, have prompted officials to take actions to spur sound and stable development in the sector. In addition to central authorities' efforts to boost real estate sales, many localities have also in recent days moved to step up support for the sector, including relaxing restrictions on purchases.

Huawei's interests have long been a topic for speculation, even though the company has repeatedly stressed its focus on its main businesses of producing telecom equipment and smartphones, despite challenges posed by the US crackdown. The stated purpose of the new real estate firm would help Huawei in continuing on that path by attracting talent through housing support. 

In terms of technological capabilities, Huawei is making strides in several key areas. On Friday, the company unveiled an upgraded version of its independently developed smartphone operating system, HarmonyOS 4.0, which is said to be 20 percent more efficient and able to extend battery life by 30 minutes.