China's top real estate firm booms

BEIJING, July 5 (UPI) -- China's biggest housing developer says business soared in the first half of the year.

China Vanke Co. Ltd. of Beijing said its property sales climbed 27.5 percent to $4.5 billion in the first half year compared with the first six months of 2008, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Sunday.

Company officials said in a statement released at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange they sold 37 million square feet of housing during the first half of 2009, up 31 percent from the year-earlier figure. China Vanke said its real estate sales rose 57 percent in June, compared with June 2008, to $1 billion.

The performance was a reversal from 2008, when China Vanke had a 6.8 percent drop in housing sales compared with 2007 in what was then a stagnant real estate market, Xinhua said.