Shanghai sees nation's biggest land deal of year

Shanghai International Port (Group) Co Ltd and a subsidiary of Sinochem Group jointly bid 5.68 billion yuan ($910.5 million) for a 40,577-square-meter tract in Shanghai on Dec 26. The tract, which sold for 23,330 yuan per sq m of gross floor area, was the priciest in China's land market this year.

In the first 20 days of December, the nation's top 10 property developers bought a total 30.54 billion yuan in land, more than they did in all of November, according to the Centaline China Property Research Center.

China Vanke Co Ltd, the largest property developer by market value in China, bought 10.22 billion yuan worth of land parcels, followed by China Overseas Holdings Ltd, which spent 8.6 billion yuan in land acquisitions, and Poly Real Estate Group, which spent 8.52 billion yuan.

Zhang Dawei, head of Centaline's research department, said the total value of land purchased by these leading developers will set a new record for the year in December.

About 20 percent of the land plots are in first-tier cities, and 63 percent are in developed or underdeveloped second-tier cities. Because of uncertainties of the market in third- and fourth-tier cities, heavyweight players are more prudent about land deals there than they are in first- and second-tier cities, the Securities Daily reported on Thursday.

Because many developers have already fulfilled their full-year sales targets, they are willing to buy more land plots, analysts said.