(Yicai Global) June 15 -- China's investment in real estate contracted in the first five months of this year.

The figure fell 0.3 percent to CNY4.59 trillion (USD647.7 billion) from a year ago, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. The decline was 3 percentage points higher than that of the first four months.

The volume of residential and commercial properties sold fell 12.3 percent to 487 million square meters over the five months, narrowing by 7 percentage points from the first four months.

In May, the country's real estate prosperity index rose by 0.5 point to 99.35 from April.

Editor: Emmi Laine