Growth in China real estate investment slowed further in the first 10 months of 2014, but property sales showed some signs of improvement, indicating Beijing’s efforts to boost the ailing sector may be starting to have an effect. Property investment, which affects more than 40 other sectors from cement to furniture, grew at its slowest pace in over five years between January to October, rising 12.4 percent from the same period a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) said on Thursday.