The commercial housing prices in China jumped 11.7 percent in the first 10 months year-on-year to 2, 758 yuan (333.4 US dollars) per square meter.

However, the growth rate of the prices in October dipped 1.3 percentage points from September, according to figures released Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

From January to October, the commercial home prices also rose 10.2 percent over the same period last year to 2,566 yuan (310.2 dollars) per square meter.

By the end of September, the vacancy rate of commercial housing stood at 97.7 million square meters, down 3.7 percent from the same period last year, while that of commercial homes declined by 13.2 percent to 57 million square meters.

From January to October, 134 million square meters of land were developed by the country's real estate developers, up nine percent year-on-year, with 198 million square meters of floor space of housing completed.

During the same period, 952.6 billion (115 billion dollars) yuan were spent on real estate development, in increase of 28.9 percent from the corresponding period last year.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2004)