Major Chinese property developers see surging sales in Q1

BEIJING - China's major property developers saw sales surge in the first quarter despite government controls on the real estate market, Shanghai Securities News reported Saturday.

Twenty-one listed developers recorded 621.6 billion yuan ($90.1 billion) of combined sales in real estate contracts signed in Q1, up 69 percent year on year, the newspaper reported.

China Vanke, the country's leading residential developer, posted a 99.7-percent jump in sales, which totaled 150.3 billion yuan in the first quarter.

Four companies saw their sales increase by more than 100 percent year on year. They included Longfor Properties, a Hong Kong-listed firm, whose sales soared 218 percent year on year to 43 billion yuan.

Major developers with good reputations gained an advantage over smaller companies amid recent government curbs on the property sector, while some developers might have accelerated sales to lock in profits before the market cools later this year as expected, the newspaper said.

The central government is trying to rein housing prices in major cities where huge demand and limited supply have pushed prices to record highs.

Major cities are taking fresh measures including increased deposits for second-home buyers, adding to the slew of steps taken since October in dozens of cities to prevent home prices from rising out of control.