China's property investment decline worsens in Q1

BEIJING (Reuters) - Property investment in China in the first quarter slid 9.5% from a year earlier, compared with a 9.0% fall in the January-February period, suggesting the sector has some way to go before a solid turnaround is likely to emerge.

Property sales by floor area in January-March logged a 19.4% slide from a year earlier, compared with a 20.5% fall in January-February, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Tuesday.

China has been ramping up measures to reinvigorate its fragile property sector including allowing state banks to lend to qualified property projects after a crackdown on developer leverage led to a snowballing liquidity crisis.

New construction starts measured by floor area dropped 27.8% in the first quarter year-on-year, after a 29.7% plunge in the first two months of the year.

Funds raised by China's property developers were down 26.0% in January-March after a 24.1% drop in the January-February period.

(Reporting by Albee Zhang, Liangping Gao and Joe Cash; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong)