Land sales hit record high in first 3 quarters

Land sales in Chinese cities soared to a record high in the first three quarters of the year as the property market warmed up and the effect of government regulations faded away.

Data from the China Index Academy, a private database of the country's property market, showed land transfer fees in 300 major Chinese cities added up to 2.11 trillion yuan ($346 billion) by the end of September this year.

This was up 70 percent from the 1.23 trillion yuan recorded during the same period last year. At the same time, the total supply of land parcels increased 8.9 percent year-on-year to 1.18 billion square meters, including 430 million sq m for residential land.

"Land sales in major cities have registered a record high in the first three quarters of this year," said Xie Yifeng, head of the Asia-Pacific Urban Real Estate Association.

Xie said the thriving market was due to an increasing land supply, high premium prices for prime land parcels and a strong willingness and capital abundance among developers to acquire new land.

Shenzhen witnessed the fiercest land market rise by far this year, with its land sales income up by 475 percent from a year before, followed by Guangzhou, which saw an increase of 431 percent.

Among the top 10 cities with the highest land sales revenue in the first three quarters, six witnessed an increase of more than 100 percent compared with the same period last year.

Nationwide, Shanghai acquired the highest income from land sales in the first three quarters, with 156.8 billion yuan going into the pockets of local government.