China's urban fixed asset investment rose 24.9 percent in the first two months of this year to reach 1.7444 trillion yuan (about 264 billion U.S. dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Friday.

During the period, investment in the property sector rose 35.2 percent to reach 425 billion yuan, of which 301.4 billion yuan went into residential housing construction, up 34.9 percent year on year, according to figures released by the NBS.