China invested 1.551 trillion yuan (US$227.1 billion) in housing construction projects in the first nine months of this year, a growth of 28.7 percent on the same period of last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.

Of the total, 63.8 billion yuan went to projects targeted at low-income earners, up 19.9 percent.

Around 2.404 billion square meters of housing were being built between January and September, up 20.3 percent. Property enterprises developed 179 million sq m of land for real estate development nationwide, down 1.6 percent.

By the end of September, unoccupied commercial properties totaled 130 million sq m nationwide, up 10.2 percent, the bureau added.

(Xinhua News Agency October 22, 2008)