New floor area under construction was up 6.3% year on year in November, after spending much of the year in negative territory.

WSJ: Income-to-Housing Price Gap Narrows in China

Distrust of the GDP numbers has prompted Capital Economics, a research firm based in London, to create its own proxy of economic activity, which includes electricity output, domestic freight volumes, cargo traffic at ports, passenger transport and floor area under construction.

ECONOMIST: Is China overstating its true rate of growth?

Measured by floor area, construction starts in the second quarter were down 15% from a year earlier the largest decrease since the second half of 2009, said Mr. Tan, who added that the trend is likely to persist in the current half.

WSJ: China Developer Sees More Weakness

In terms of floor area, property construction starts increased 16% to 1.9 billion square meters in 2011, a growth rate down sharply from 42% in 2010, data released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

WSJ: China Construction Starts Slowed in 2011