1. The general business boom level of the development of national real estate

    According to the new measure issued by the National Bureau of Statistics, the business boom index of national real estate development in April was 105.77, down by 0.43 point over this March and 1.12 point less compared with that of last April. In the first 4 months of this year, following the visible drop of development investment of real estate, the business boom index of national real estate changed in the Shape of inversing ¡®U¡¯ (Figure 1), which showed the clear trend of rise and fall, and reached the rock bottom since the beginning of 2003. The figures made clear that the business boom level of national real estate development would trend to be sound after original effects of polices and measures controlling the high growth of investment of real estate carried out by the State have been shown. In April, among the 8 sub-indices of the business boom index of national real estate, 6 of them had shown the various trends of decline. Especially, the index of floor space of finished and newly started buildings had declined greatly, which had been the major factor to lead to the drop of the business boom index of the national real estate.

    2. The features of main sub-indices

    ---The sub-index of floor space of finished buildings. In April, the index of floor space of finished buildings was 105.24, up 0.60 point than that of this March, 5.24 points less than that of the same month of 2003, which declined to the greatest extent among all the sub-indices. >From January to April, the finished floor space of domestic commercial buildings accumulated to 53.1 million square meters, up 22.9% year on year and 14.5 percentage points less than the rise of same period of last year. Among them, the floor space of finished commercial houses was 42.74 million square meters, growing by 19.4% over last April which was 18 percentage points less than the rise of the same period of last year; the finished floor space of office buildings was 1.46 million square meters, going up 42.5% over last April; that of commercial business buildings was 6.32 million square meters, up 39.8%. By area, the floor space finished by the enterprises of real estate in the eastern area had been 33.53 million square meters, increasing by 18.8%, which was obviously less than 32.5% of the central areas and 25.7% of the western areas.

    ---The sub-index of floor space of new-started buildings . The index of the floor space of new-started projects in this April was 102.93, down 0.23 point than that of this March, 4.23 point less than that of the same month of last year. In this year, this index of floor space of new-started commercial buildings had fairly fallen to the rock bottom since the beginning of year 2003. From January to April, the floor space of domestic new-started commercial buildings totaled 174 million square meters, a year-on-year rise of 19.7% which was 12 point less than the rise of the same period of last year. By area, the floor space of newly started buildings was 39.14 million square meters in the western areas, only up 6% which was lowest growth rate of all the areas. The floor space of newly started buildings was 31.42 million square meters in the central areas, increasing by 38.3%; that was 104 million square meters in the eastern areas, growing by 20.7% over the first four months of last year. By use, the newly started floor space of commercial houses reached 140 million square meters, up 16.7%. The floor space of newly started office buildings arrived at 4.36 million square meters, rising by 47.6%; that of commercial business buildings was 21.28 million square meters, mounting up 29.7% year on year.

    ¡ª¡ªThe sub-index of land development area. The sub-index of land development area was 114.44 in April, up 0.23 point than that of this March, 2.40 point less than that of the same period of last year, which had fallen in the second successive month. >From January to April, the domestic finished area of land development had accumulated to 52.6 million square meters, increasing by 32.2%, 8.9 point less than that of the same period of past year. By area, the land development areas in 9 provinces kept growing negatively. Among those, the areas of land development in 4 provinces had the decline rate of over 30%. In the meantime, the areas of purchased land kept falling trend as well. From January to April, the domestic areas of purchased land had been 94.92 million square meters, growing by 23.4% which was 5.4 point less than the rise of the same period of last year.

    ¡ª¡ªThe sub-index of fund source of this year. In April, the sub-index of fund source of this year was 104.57, down 2.94 points than that of this March and 2.28 points less than that of the same month of past year. In the first four months of 2004, the sub-index of fund source of real estate development fluctuated within the range of high level, trending to descend wholly. From January to April, the fully funds of projects actually achieved by the enterprises of real estate development had been 485 billion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 40.8%, 6.5 point less than that of the same period of 2003. Among that, the domestic loan had reached 113.3 billion yuan, up 19%. The fundraising by enterprises had totaled 154.7 billion yuan, growing by 45.3%. The utilized foreign investments had accumulated to 6.6 billion yuan, down 1.4%.

    ¡ª¡ªThe sub-index of sales price of commercial buildings. In April, the sub-index of sales price of commercial buildings was 99.32, up 1.05 point than that of this March, 0.41 point less than that of the same month of 2003. From January to April, the national average sales price of commercial buildings had been 2647 yuan per square meter, a year-on-year rise of 6.8%, 0.6 point less than that of the same period of 2003. Among that, the average sales price of commercial houses had been 2437 yuan per square meter, up 5.9% year on year. By area, the average sales prices of commercial buildings in 8 provinces such as Beijing, Hebei, Hunan, Shaanxi and so on had kept growing negatively, while those in 6 provinces and cities had grown more than 20% including Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Gansu and so on.

    ---The sub-index of vacant commercial buildings. In this April, The sub-index of floor space of vacant commercial buildings was 93.12, up 0.45 point than that of this March, 3.05 point less than that of the same month of 2003. The decline of floor space of vacant commercial buildings indicated that the rise of vacant areas dropped to some extent, which pushed the rise of boom level of real estate. By the end of April, the national areas of vacant commercial buildings had reached 96.02 million square meters, up 3.6%, 6 points less in the rise. Specifically speaking, the vacant areas of commercial houses had been 59.25 million square meters, down 2.8% year on year. By vacant space, the vacant areas of commercial buildings over one year had been 55.29 million square meters, taking up 57.6% of the total.