Of the 40 real estate companies that have announced their earnings estimates for 2008, 40 percent said they expected sharp declines or losses on falling revenue.

Industry experts said their performances have reflected the depressive state of the property market around the country, marked by dwindling sales and falling prices.

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that total sales of commercial and residential properties in the first eleven months of 2008 dropped 18.3 percent from a year earlier period to 490 million sq m. The vacancy rate increased by 15.3 percent with about 136-million-sq-m of commercial residential housing unoccupied.

Shenyin Wanguo Securities Research Institute predicted that the supply and demand in real estate industry will reached equilibrium in 2010 when prices will begin to stabilize and rise gradually.

(China Daily February 9, 2009)