BEIJING, July 17 -- China's investment in property development continued to decline in the first half of the year, albeit at a slower pace, indicating a stabilization of the property market since the beginning of the year thanks to a slew of cooling measures.

The investment in property development went down 7.9 percent year on year to 5.86 trillion yuan (824.65 billion U.S. dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. The data narrowed from a 10 percent drop registered in 2022.

Commercial housing sales shrank 5.3 percent year on year in terms of floor area to 595.15 million square meters, after slumping 24.3 percent in 2022.

The value of commercial housing sales climbed 1.1 percent year on year in the first six months to 6.31 trillion yuan, after a 26.7 percent drop registered in 2022.

The overall property market has been operating steadily since the beginning of the year, but it still takes time for persistent risks in certain property firms to fade away, said Zou Lan, head of the monetary policy department of the People's Bank of China, at a press conference on Friday.

The supply and demand relationship in the real estate market has undergone profound changes, so there is room to improve the policies introduced during the overheated stage of the market, he added.

Credit data from the central bank mirrored improvement in the property market. The banks lent 3.5 trillion yuan of mortgages from January to June, an increase of 510 billion yuan year on year, while the cumulative new loans for property development hit 420 billion yuan, an increase of 200 billion yuan year on year.

Under the principle that housing is for living in, not for speculation, China has been implementing city-specific policies to support people in buying their first homes or improving their housing conditions in order to promote the steady and healthy development of the real estate market.