Property prices in China's 70 major cities grew 1 percent in July from a year earlier, the biggest increase in nine months, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday.

The growth rate is 0.8 percentage points quicker than the previous month, and the price is up 0.9 percent from June, the fifth-straight monthly again.

Although climbing property prices have fuelled concerns over a "bubble" in the sector, most industry insiders believe existing rates are still reasonable.

Grant Ji, director of Savills (Beijing), a UK-based real estate service provider, said the country's property sector was unlikely to see a correction within the year.

"Thanks to the soaring property sales in the first half of the year, most real estate firms have plenty of cash on hand. In fact, quite a number of them have seen their sales in the first half near their target for the whole year," said Ji.

China's property sales surged 60 percent by value in the first seven months, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its website yesterday.

Real estate investment rose 11.6 percent, up from 9.9 percent in the six months to June 30.

Poly Real Estate, for instance, said yesterday its sales for the first seven months soared 143 percent from a year earlier to 24 billion yuan as the property market recovered.

Volume of space sold in the period also rose about 149 percent to 2.97 million sq m, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange.

"Meanwhile, with multiple financing channels such as easier loans from banks, corporate bonds and private placements available now, quite a number of property developers may have sufficient cash flow for a year," said Ji, adding that property prices may drop after next year.

"As the loose monetary policy is not likely to see a change this year, we would hardly see a big adjustment this year," said Carlby Xie, senior manager of research and consulting at Colliers International (Beijing). "Even though there is a correction, it would not be as big as last year's."

The following months could probably see stabilization in property prices and transactions, Xie added.

(China Daily August 11, 2009)