Developers buy prime land at hefty rates to ride boom

SHANGHAI: China's realty market saw land acquisitions at record prices in the past month.

Data from Centaline Property Agency has revealed that land reserves of China's 10 major property developers jumped 74 percent month-on-month in June. Vanke, the barometer of the real estate sector, acquired eight projects worth 4.703 billion yuan from Xiamen, Foshan, Anshan, Shanghai and Chongqing.

But this was only the tip of the iceberg. A new group of "land kings" has appeared in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which has led to an increase in land prices. These new land kings are mostly listed companies or are State-owned, said Lu Qilin, director of the Shanghai-based Uwin Real Estate Research Center.