(Yicai Global) Aug. 15 -- China's housing market remains stable overall and is moving in a positive direction, with inventories falling to a 50-month low, analysts said.

Though no sign of loosening real estate policylooms, property investment and sales have improved moderately, with investment growth rising 0.5 percentage points to 10.2 percent in the first seven months and the housing market remaining stable overall,stateSecurities Daily quoted Zhang Jun, chief economist at Morgan Stanley Huaxin Securities, as saying yesterday.

China's property destocking process has been completed, with inventories falling to a 50-monthnadir, according to data from Centaline Property Research Center.

The amount of commercial housing for sale was 544 million square meters as of the end of last month, down 6.6 million square meters from a month earlier. The floor space of homes, office buildings and commercial properties for sale fell by 5.44 million square meters, 400,000 square meters and 480,000 square meters, respectively, according to thecountry'sNational Bureau of Statistics.

Propertydevelopment investment data are one of this year's strongest, Yan Yuejin, research director atShanghai E-House Real Estate R&D Institute's Think Tank Center, said yesterday. Despite tight controls on home sales across China, performance on the supply side is very good, with investment rising rather than falling. Propertydevelopment investment is still growing at a double-digit pace, suggestingit is a bit too high. An important factor is thatauthorities are urging developers touse idle land tobreak ground on new homes, which will lead to robustrealtyinvestment figures and contribute to the country's restocking efforts.

Commodity housing sales are strong and national property sales data are following a U-shaped trend, suggesting that market cooling is fading and transactions are likely torise, Yan said. Commodity housing saleswere up4.2 percentage pointsannually in the first seven months,suggesting scoperemainsfor home sales to rebound.Aslowdownin the pace of pre-sale permit issuances failed to dampenhome sales, whichseemset to remain strong in the second half.

China's propertydevelopment investment grew 10 percent annually to CNY6.6trillion(USD956 billion)in the first seven months, up 0.5 percentage points from the pace in the January to June period, NBS data show. The floor space of commercial housing sold in the first seven months was 900 million square meters, up 4.2 percent on the year,as growth increased 0.9of apercentage point from January to June.

The floor space of properties for sale fell 14.3 percent annually last month, meaning inventories arefalling, though at a slower rate, Yan said, adding that data on floor space of properties for saleis very regular.

Editor: Ben Armour