Guangdong property market rebounds

GUANGZHOU - The real estate market in South China's booming Guangdong province has seen a rebound this year as more people have rushed to snap up discounted property following a correction last year, new statistics have indicated.

Property developers in the region sold 22.5 million square meters of commercial buildings in the first five months, down 12.4 percent year-on-year. But the decline was 1.5 percentage points smaller than that of the January-April period, according to a statement issued Sunday by the Guangdong provincial bureau of statistics.

Meanwhile, the sale revenue fell at a smaller annual rate of 8 percent, compared with 14.5 percent in the first four months, to 182.4 billion yuan ($28.7 billion).

The property market has experienced a gloomy year after the early-2011 roll-out of a series of tough government curbs, including purchase restrictions, higher lending rates and a ban on mortgage loans for third homes.

Many potential buyers have rushed to snap up bargains in the past few months, triggering a modest rebound in both transaction volumes and prices.

On expectation that the rebound is likely to continue, real estate developers restarted land stocking.

Developers in Guangdong spent 23.8 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) on land purchases in the January-May period, up 0.5 percent year-on-year. In the first four months, there was a sharp annual decline of 11.4 percent in land investment.