The weak contracted sales trend since the second half of 2021 continued at the beginning of 2022. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the total contracted sales rose by 4.8% year-on-year to RMB18.2 trillion in 2021, while the contracted sales GFA rose by 1.9% year-on-year to 1.8 billion square meters during the same period. Nevertheless, the sales growth slowed down significantly from the 38.9% year-on-year increase achieved in the first half of 2021. Moreover, according to China Real Estate Information Corp., contracted sales of the top 100 property developers dropped on average by 39.6% year-on-year in January 2022. The contracted sales will likely remain stagnant in the first quarter of 2022, given the weak sentiment in the Chinese property market during the Chinese New Year. According to China Index Academy, contracted sales GFA for the cities under observation dropped 51% during the Chinese New Year holiday, compared with the same period last year.