China Vanke Co., the country's largest publicly traded real-estate developer, said property sales declined 35 percent last month from a year earlier, the fifth monthly fall. Sales were 3.35 billion yuan (US$491 million) last month after the company sold properties with a total floor area of 464,000 square meters, Vanke said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday.

Sales fell 38 percent in September, 35 percent in August, 15 percent in July and 23 percent in June. Shenzhen-based Vanke said it sold property worth about 39 billion yuan in the first 10 months of the year, a drop of 7.1 percent from a year earlier.

(Shanghai Daily November 7, 2008)