Real estate has dropped from the top three investment choices among residents in Chongqing municipality for the first time in two years, while Internet financing is fast becoming a popular item in investors' portfolios, according to a survey of the first quarter by the Chongqing Operation Office of the People's Bank of China released on Sunday.

Nobody's home in 10.2m apartments, survey finds

Internet finance is in, but is banking out?

The survey showed that only 11.75 percent of respondents chose real estate as their favored investment option, down 3.5 percentage points month-on-month and 2 percentage points year-on-year. Of those surveyed, 3.75 percent chose "private lending" as their top choice, while 1 percent chose "collection," both lower than the same period a year ago.

The new top three choices are funds and wealth management products, picked by 39.75 percent of those surveyed; enterprises, 14.25 percent; and stocks, 12.5 percent.

Individual housing loan balances in Chongqing rose by 21.2 percent by the end of March from the same time last year, up 4.6 percentage points. Loans by first homebuyers accounted for more than 90 percent of the total.

Residents in the municipality showed stronger preferences towards deposits, wealth management products and stocks, while the desire to buy gold or do private lending has weakened, said Liao Yonggang, head of the statistics department of the Chongqing Operation Office.

Meanwhile, Internet financing is catching on. Among investors, 64.25 percent reported that they were aware of this option, while 43.58 percent said they were very familiar with some of the products.

Among the people surveyed, 18.29 percent said they had purchased Internet financial products before, while 10 percent said they would transfer some of their money to Internet investments.