BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s financial hub Shanghai has a goal of 5% growth in property investment in 2023, the city’s house management bureau said on Friday, after investment in the city’s property sector shrank by 1.1% in 2022.
The metropolitan city of 26 million people was hit hard by strict COVID lockdowns a year ago, trapping property buyers at home and disrupting construction by real estate developers.
Shanghai is seeking to achieve 5% growth in property investment this year and will let the sector play an effective role in stabilising its economic growth, the bureau said in a public notice. That is expected to increase the city’s property investment to around 523 billion yuan ($76.37 billion).
The city will work “to stabilise land prices, home prices and expectations” and “prevent and defuse risks in the real estate market,” the notice said.
Property investment by developers nationwide fell by 5.7% in January-February, data by the National Bureau of Statistics showed, a recovery compared with a 12% slump in December and a 10% decline for the whole of last year.
However, policymakers said risks remain in the property market. State land sales revenue declined further in the first two months of the year, suggesting property developers remain cautious even after authorities stepped up support to help them weather a severe financing shortage.
($1 = 6.8485 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Barbara Lewis)
