BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China's investment in property development edged up 1.9 percent year on year in the first half of 2020, compared with the 7.7-percent decline during the January-March period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

Total property investment in the period stood at 6.28 trillion yuan (about 898 billion U.S. dollars), the NBS said.

Investment in residential buildings came in at 4.64 trillion yuan, up 2.6 percent from the same period last year.

Commercial housing sales in terms of floor area totaled 694.04 million square meters in the first half, down 8.4 percent year on year.

In terms of value, commercial housing sales fell 5.4 percent year on year to 6.69 trillion yuan in the first half.

The property development climate index compiled by the NBS went up slightly by 0.5 points from May to 99.85 points in June.