A REPORT by China's National Bureau of Statistics shows investment in the country's property sector reached 721.4 billion yuan (US$94.7 billion) in the first five months, a jump of 27.5 percent from the same period last year.

Of the total amount, 504.2 billion yuan was poured into residential properties, up 29.5 percent. Low-cost home construction took 20.8 billion yuan, a rise of 39.4 percent.

In the first five months, developers in the country registered 1.21 trillion yuan of investment capital, up 26.2 percent from the same period last year. Foreign investment reached 22.2 billion yuan, a whopping gain of 89.9 percent, the NBS said without elaborating.

The area of land under development reached 97.75 million square meters, up 11.2 percent, while the floor space of buildings under construction reached 1.56 billion square meters, up 21.9 percent.

By the end of May, the floor space of commercial properties unsold or unused totaled 127 million square meters, up 4.7 percent, of which 68.25 million square meters were residential, up 1.4 percent.

The NBS report showed that China's housing climate index was 103.32 in May, 0.67 point higher than in April and 1.45 points higher than May 2006.

The housing climate index has six sub-indices - property development, capital source, the area of land developed, average sale prices of marketable buildings, the floor space of marketable but unsold buildings and the floor space of buildings under construction.