Despite state policies to rein in the overheated real estate sector, investment in property development in Beijing grew 18.1 percent year-on-year in the first five months of this year.

According to the latest data provided by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, the Chinese capital pumped 48.09 billion yuan (6.01 billion U.S. dollars) in real estate development between January and May, or more than half of the 87.8 billion yuan (10.98 billion U.S. dollars) in fixed-assets investment the city made for that period.

Of the money injected in property development, 25.1 billion yuan (3.14 billion U.S. dollars) went to construction of residential housing, up 33 percent.

The total fixed-assets investment was 24 percent more than a year earlier, the bureau said.

The total input included 21.35 billion yuan (2.67 billion U.S. dollars) in capital construction, up 91.4 percent year-on-year.

Such major infrastructure projects as the Beijing-Tianjin light rail project and those for the 2008 Olympics contributed significantly to the rapid growth, the bureau added.