Land sales hit a 16-month high

Land sales in China's 10 major cities hit a 16-month high of 66.3 billion yuan ($10.6 billion) in November, a growth of 23 percent month-on-month and 0.4 percent year-on-year, a property report said.

In the 10 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the average home price grew 18 percent in November to 2,580 yuan per square meter from a month ago, data from a report compiled by Shanghai E-house China R&D Institute showed.

Rising transaction volumes and home prices have shown the domestic property market is speeding up its recovery, said Wu Xiaojun, an analyst from E-house China.

According to Wu, local governments will usually increase the supply of prime land plots at the end of the year to boost their revenue from land sales, partly stimulating the land transactions.

The land market in first- and second-tier cities has warmed up but it is uncertain about the trend in third- and fourth-tier cities, Shanghai-based newspaper China Business News reported, citing an unnamed source.

Information from E-house China shows that China's 10 major cities earned a total of 357.4 billion yuan through land sales during the first 11 months of this year, down 37 percent year-on-year. Wu estimated that the year-on-year decline in land sales revenue will be narrowed to 30 percent.

wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn