The value of Macao's property sales and purchase contracts signed in the first quarter rose 80.6 percent over the same period of last year, according to official statistics published here Thursday.

The figures from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that a total of 5,412 real-estate sales and purchase contracts were inked, involving the transaction of 6,981 flats with an officially registered value of 4.58 billion patacas (558 million US dollars).

The total registered value of mortgage credit granted in the first quarter reached 4.03 billion patacas (491 million US dollars)and 44.5 percent of the amount was concerned real-estate purchases,according to the figures.

Macao's real-estate market has seen a boom since Macao returned to the motherland in 1999.

Source: Xinhua