BEIJING — China’s real estate investment has grown fast in the first seven months of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Aug 14.

Property investment increased 10.2 percent year-on-year in the first seven months, compared to the 9.7-percent expansion recorded in the January-June period, the NBS said in a statement.

NBS data showed investment in the real estate sector amounted to 6.59 trillion yuan (about $956 billion), with 70.5 percent of the total pumped into residential projects.

Residential real estate investment increased 14.2 percent in the first seven months, compared to 13.6 percent in the first half of this year.

In breakdown, developers built about 7.28 billion square meters of housing in the January-July period, up 3 percent year-on-year.