BEIJING - China Vanke Co, the country's largest property developer by market value, said?Sept 5?that its sales for August fell 12.6 percent from a year earlier.

Sales stood at 10.48 billion yuan ($1.64 billion) in August, the company said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It was higher than the 9.08 billion yuan for July this year.

Sold floor space rose 5 percent to 960,000 square meters in August, the statement said.

The figures brought the company's home sales to 84.57 billion yuan in the first eight months and 7.332 million square meters in sold floor space, it said. Property sales were 57.21 billion yuan in the first eight months of last year.

The company said last month that its net profit increased 5.88 percent year-on-year to 2.98 billion yuan in the first half of the year.

Vanke's share price fell 0.86 percent to 8.03 yuan at close.