China's real estate land use drops 25.5 pct in 2014

Official data showed on Tuesday that China's land area used in real estate development fell sharply last year as the property sector hit a rough patch.

New home construction used 151,000 hectares of land in 2014, plummeting 25.5 percent year on year, the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources said in a report.

A major contributor to China's economic expansion, the property market has been affected by weak demand and an excess of unsold homes. The country's GDP growth fell to a 24-year low of 7.4 percent in 2014.

The real estate market continued its downward trend with new home prices in January registering month-on-month declines in most cities surveyed.