Gemdale's home sales up 7.3% in Sept

BEIJING -- Gemdale Corp, China's third-largest property developer by market value, said Thursday that its home sales rose 7.3 percent year-on-year to 4.06 billion yuan ($644.44 million) in September.

The company sold 351,000 square meters of floor space last month, up 13.4 percentage points?from the previous year, Gemdale said in a statement filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

During the first nine months of the year, Gemdale's home sales increased 13.1 percent year-on-year to 22.32 billion yuan. The amount of sold floor space jumped 30.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.91 million square meters, according to the statement.

Twenty-three residential projects developed by Gemdale will go on sale in October and November, the statement added.

China has taken a series of tightening measures to rein in the runaway property market in recent years, including a ban on third-home purchases and increased down payment requirements.

Thirty-six major Chinese cities recorded higher new home prices month on month in August, down from 50 cities in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics show.

Gemdale's shares fell 0.39 percent to open at 5.08 yuan on Thursday.