BEIJING Reuters - China's September new construction starts slumped for a sixth straight month, the longest spate of monthly declines since 2015, as cash-strapped developers reined in investment and put pause on projects after tighter regulations on borrowing.
New construction starts in September fell 13.54% from a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations based on January-September data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.
That marks the last downtrend since declines in March-August 2015, the longest property downturn in almost a decade.
When the sector recovered in 2016 when authorities loosened their grip on acquisitions and development, tens of thousands of real estate firms borrowed heavily to build homes. But as regulations tightened again this year, many of them are facing a liquidity crunch that is worsened by sharply weaker demand due to tighter restrictions on speculative purchases.
Property sales by floor area fell 14.8% in September, according to Reuters calculations based on the statistic bureau's data.
The slowdown in the sector was also underscored by a 3.5% drop in property investments by developers in September, the first monthly decline since January-February last year at the height of the COVID -19 pandemic in China.
In the first nine months, property investment tripled by 8.8% over a year earlier, slowing down from 10.9% growth seen in January-August.
Investments raised by China's property developers declined 11.1%, slower than the rise of 14.8% seen in the first eight months.