China Vanke sees slower sales growth amid house cooling

BEIJING - China Vanke, the country's largest property developer by revenue, posted slower growth in sales value in the first eight months amid a cooling house market, according to a statement the company filed with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Thursday.

The value of houses sold in the January-August rose 14.6 percent from a year ago to 129.4 billion yuan ($21 billion), slower than the 20.6 percent growth seen in the first half of the year.

The area of sold buildings reached 10.98 million square meters in the first eight months, up 13.5 percent year on year, compared with a 14.6 percent growth in the January-June period, the Shenzhen-listed company said.

The real estate sector has cooled across China since the beginning of this year, prompting a growing number of regional governments to scrap home-purchase restriction policies.

Vanke noted in the statement the company needs to pay a total of 1.12 billion yuan for two development projects separtately in cities of Urumqi and Zhengzhou.

The company owns a 49 percent stake in a 189,000 square-meter land lot in Urumqi and a 51 percent stake in the 152,000 square-meter land lot in Zhengzhou.

Share price of Vanke rose 1.8 percent to close at 9.67 yuan on Thursday.

Vanke's net profit rose 5.55 percent year on year to 4.81 billion yuan in the first six months.

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