China Vanke, the largest developer on the mainland, has acquired a commercial-residential site in Foshan, Guangdong province, for 2.15 billion yuan (HK$2.44 billion) in the most expensive sale in the city in 20 months.
As supply of large sites is limited, the 284,037-square-metre site attracted bids from Vanke, Poly Real Estate, China Overseas Land and Investment, Agile Property Holdings and Country Garden Holdings.
Vanke's winning bid was 152 per cent higher than the opening bid of 852 million yuan. It was the most expensive sale since December 2007 in Foshan.
Centaline (China) deputy managing director, Lai Kwok-kwong, said property prices in Foshan have risen 30 per cent in the first half of this year.
He expects Vanke, which paid about 3,028 yuan per square metre for the site, to sell homes for 7,000 to 8,000 yuan per square metre. The site can be turned into a middle-class commercial and residential project with a total gross floor area of 710,040 sqmetres.
An analyst said Vanke's recent acquisitions showed the developer was hungry in replenishing its land bank, thanks to strong property sales in the first half. The developer had a land bank of 30 million sqmetres at the end of last year.
