(Editor: Leona)

China's real estate investment gained 10.5 percent year on year to 9.5 trillion yuan (1.55 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2014, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Tuesday.

The growth rate was markedly down by 9.3 percentage points from 2013, the NBS data showed.

Investment in residential buildings increased 9.2 percent in the last year, accounting for 67.7 percent of total investment in the real estate sector.

Over 1.2 billion square meters of commercial buildings were sold in 2014, down 7.6 percent year on year, and sales volume declined 6.3 percent from a year ago to 7.63 trillion yuan.