Guangzhou Investment buys land sites for $192 mln

HONG KONG, June 11 (Reuters) - Real estate developer Guangzhou Investment (0123.HK) said it had bought three land sites in Guangdong province for a total 1.31 billion yuan ($191.7 million), a move to tap growing demand for residential properties in China.

The company said in a statement late on Wednesday it would buy two commercial and residential land sites in Jiangmen City for 968 million yuan, and would acquire another residential site in Guangzhou City for 345 million yuan.

It gave no further details.

Property investment is a major driver of China's overall urban fixed-asset spending.

The National Bureau of Statistics had said on Wednesday property sales nationwide increased by 25.5 percent in the first five months, up from annual growth of 17.5 in the first four months, sustaining an upward trend that started at the beginning of this year. Annual real estate investment growth quickened to 6.8 percent in the first five months, up from 4.9 percent in the January-April period, the statistics office said, suggesting a significant pickup in capital spending in the sector in May. (US$1=HK$7.8=6.833 yuan) (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Ken Wills)