Property sales surged 75 percent to 4.4 trillion yuan (US$644 billion) in China last year, mainly driven by robust sentiment to buy homes, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Sales of residential developments soared 80 percent from a year earlier, followed by offices which rose 67 percent and retail properties at 45 percent, according to a statement released yesterday on the bureau's Website.

By floor area, property sales across the country jumped 42 percent to 937 million square meters in 2009.

Investment in real estate across the country climbed 16 percent to 3.6 trillion yuan last year, with 70 percent of funds going into residential development, according to the bureau statement.

"Benefiting from an easy monetary policy, the country's real estate industry, which always plays an important role in driving the nation's economy, had grown at a much faster pace over the past year compared to any other industries," said Xue Jianxiong, an analyst with E-House (China) Holdings Ltd, China's largest integrated real estate services provider.

"The real estate market may remain overheated if no further cooling measures, or more forceful ones, are introduced by the central government," Xue said.

The central government, for instance, could consider canceling some favorable tax and fee policies for developers, while local governments should cut some of their reliance on the real estate industry to boost their economies, Xue added.