China Vanke sales down 39.84% in Feb.

China Vanke, the country's biggest property developer by market value, said its home sales dropped 39.84 percent from the pervious month to 7.34 billion yuan (1.16 billion U.S. dollars) in February amid government's control efforts.

But the figure was up 20.72 percent from the same period last year, the property developer said in its sales report filed to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange after Monday's trading ended.

Tan Huajie, board secretary of Vanke, attributed the year-on-year increase to a lower comparison base due to the fact that Chinese Spring Festival fell at the beginning of February last year, which meant that month register the lowest sales of 2011.

Meanwhile, as completing a transaction takes time, the sales decrease caused by Spring Festival this year, which fell on Jan. 23, was mainly reflected in February's sales, Tan explained.

The company said it sold 720,000 square meters of residential floor space in February, down 39.5 percent from January, while up 31.15 percent from a year earlier.

Weighed by the government's tightening measures, Vanke's home sales fell 27.23 percent year-on-year to 19.05 billion yuan in the first two months of the year, while sales in terms of floor areas dropped 13.35 percent to 1.91 million square meters during the period.

China started adopting measures to rein in the runaway market in 2010, introducing tightened credit, a third-home purchase ban, higher down payments and property tax trials.

Prices have seen slower growth as a result of the cooling efforts. In January, home prices in 70 major Chinese cities monitored by the National Bureau of Statistics all saw prices stabilize.