China’s largest real estate developer by sales, China Vanke, announced its earnings on Monday, recording an increase of 19 percent in sales in May from the previous year to 10.72 billion yuan ($1.68 billion).
The real estate giant said it sold 4.8 million square meters of property during the January-May period, the company said in a statement to the Shenzhen stock exchange.
During the first five months of the year, sales totaled 49.2 billion yuan, down 6 percent from the same period a year earlier.
For two years China has restricted bank lending to the real estate sector and limited the ability of its citizens to buy several homes, or homes in other cities, to curb speculation in high-end housing that has doubled prices in key cities between mid-2009 and the end of 2010.
Last week, a survey released by the China Real Estate Index System (CREIS) showed average home prices in 100 key Chinese cities fell in May, reflecting the effect of Beijing's efforts to curb property speculation.
