BEIJING, March 13 -- The sales value of residential homes in China went down 5 percent year on year to 598.5 billion yuan (97.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months of 2014, latest government data showed.

The amount of housing floor space sold during the period went down 1.2 percent year on year, according to the data released on Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

During the two-month period, gross sales of properties including residential housing, offices and commercial premises totaled 709 billion yuan in value, down 3.7 percent year on year. Total floor space sold reached 104.66 million square meters, down 0.1 percent, the data showed.

Property developers invested in real estate development at a slower rate because of falling sales. They invested 795.6 billion yuan during the period, up 19.3 percent year on year. However, the growth rate fell by 0.5 percentage point compared to the same period last year, the data showed.

The NBS data report said that residential housing accounted for 68.2 percent of developers' real estate investment during the period. Investment in residential property grew 18.4 percent year on year. The growth rate dropped 1 percentage point from a year ago.

Meanwhile, an index reflecting vitality of real estate development stood at 96.91 points in February, down 0.3 point from December, the data showed.