(DUBLIN, IRELAND) -- Like its counterparts in the U.S. and the U.K., developers in China are seeing their 10-year run-up in profits at an end.  Investment growth rate this year is expected to fall below 10 percent.

Residential projects have made up about 72 percent of all real estate investment in the country.

That is the most recent analysis from Research and Markets, a Dublin real estate organization that tracks the industry worldwide.

In the Jan.-Dec. Period of 2008, China saw a combined investment of RMB 3,058 billion ($446 million US)  in real estate development, growing 20.9% year on year, with the growth rate falling 1.8 percentage points in the Jan.-Nov. period.

Among the combined investment, the residential real estate investment amounted to RMB 2,208.1 billion ($322 million US) , rising 22.6% over a year earlier, with the growth rate declining 2.6 percentage points, and accounting for 72.2% of the real estate investment.

In the same period, Chinese real estate developers witnessed a total floor space of 2.74 billion square meters (29 billion square feet) under construction, growing 16.0% from a year earlier; a newly commenced floor space of 980 million square meters (10.5 billion square feet),  increasing 2.3% compared to 2007; and a completed floor space of 590 million square meters (6.35 billion square feet), falling 3.5%.

The floor space of the residential real estate completed was 480 million square meters (5.1 billion square feet), declining 4.2%.
 
Chinese real estate developers bought 370 million square meters (3.98 billion square feet) of land, down 8.6% year on year, and completed a land development area of 260 million square meters (2.79 billion square feet), down 5.6% year on year.

"To date, the real estate market has suffered the continuous downslide, and the housing price has considerably fallen down, marking that the era of exorbitant profit in China's real estate industry has come to an end," according to Research and Markets.

"China's real estate market has started the return to rationality after the 10-year price markup," the report states.

The researchers expect China's real estate industry "will maintain an overall trend of adjustment in 2009, accompanied by an investment growth rate down to below 10%."   

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