China’s property sales surged and investment accelerated, adding to signs that growth in the world’s third-largest economy is recovering.

Property sales by value jumped 45.3% in the five months through May from a year earlier to 1 trillion yuan ($146bn) and real estate investment growth quickened to 6.8%, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its Web site today.

Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to build 5.2 million low-rent homes over the next three years and offer housing subsidies to help accommodate 7.5 million poor urban families by 2011. Wen last month lowered the amount of funds developers have to put up for property projects to spur construction after cutting transaction costs for home buyers last year amid a market slump.

bloomberg.com