Beijing puts up 12 plots for sale by tender
Home prices are expected to rise further as local governments seek to boost revenues
Beijing has put out a dozen plots of land for sale this month, including one in its central area, which is expected to add fuel to the real estate market and further drive up home prices.
A 20,664 square metre site in the central district of Xicheng for residential and financial use carries a bottom price of 3.55 billion yuan and requires a deposit of 1.1 billion yuan from bidders.
In the first 23 days of this year, Beijing raked in land sale revenue of 40.3 billion yuan, according to data from CRIC, a unit of real estate services firm E-House (China). The city's land sale income hit a record 182 billion yuan in 2013.
In other top cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the Year of the Horse also began with bumper land sale revenues, sustaining a trend started last year amid developers' forays into the country's most lucrative market.
"The heat is not abating in the land markets in various cities," CRIC said. "Local governments are actively putting out land lots for sale in response to the leaders' call for more supply."
"But it seems they are also seeking to increase land sale revenues" due to their reliance on such incomes to finance public budgets, it added.