BEIJING -- Sales of China's leading property developers saw robust growth in March amid the economic recovery from the novel coronavirus outbreak, an industry report showed.

Sales of the surveyed 100 major property developers marked a monthly growth of 136.2 percent but still a drop of 17 percent year on year, according to data from CRIC, a property research institution.

The contracted sales of Country Garden, one of the country's biggest property developers, totaled about 66 billion yuan (about $9.38 billion) in March, remaining flat year on year, according to the company.

Another major Chinese developer China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings Co Ltd saw its March sales up 22.1 percent from the same period last year to 21.74 billion yuan.

Despite the epidemic's impact on the sales, delivery and settlement of housing enterprises, the current market performance is gradually recovering, an analyst with CRIC said.

To achieve their sales targets for 2020, property developers should pay more attention to marketing strategies including opening up sales channels through the combination of online and offline approaches to attract more customers, said the analyst.