Investment in real estate in Shanghai, a leading economic city, surpassed 40 billion yuan in the first half of this year.

Statistics released by the municipal statistical bureau show that 4.1 percent of the city's economic growth in the period was from real estate.

In the January-June period, the industry completed value-added turnover of some 18.2 billion yuan, up 8.1 percent over the corresponding period last year, accounting for 6.4 percent of the total gross domestic product (GDP) in the city.

Of the total investment of 41.7 billion yuan, individual investors completed 8.88 billion yuan, up 62.9 percent on a year-on-year base, while share-holding companies contributed 15.75 billion yuan, up 3.4 percent and overseas investment reaching 7.79billion yuan, up 37.5 percent.

Meanwhile, both the demand and the supply of real estate in the city hit a record high. In the period, the total area of newly completed real estate projects reached 6.37 million square meters while the area of real estate sold reached 7.47 million square meters.

Under the surging demand, the area of real estate left unused continued to decrease. By the end of June, the area of residential projects left vacant for more than one year was 1.06 million square meters, down 20.9 percent from the beginning of the year.