China Land Sales Hit Eight-Year Low as Housing Slump Worsens
- Sales could face years of downward pressure, Goldman says
- Beijing last week announced new steps to shore up market
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China’s local governments raised the least revenue from land sales in eight years, another sign of the nation’s deepening housing crisis that has forced Beijing to pump in more cash.
Incomes from transfers of rights to use state-owned land — where local authorities sell land to property developers — fell 21% in April from a year earlier to 238.9 billion yuan ($33 billion), according to Bloomberg calculations based on data released by the Ministry of Finance on Monday. That’s the lowest figure since May 2016.