‘Land kings’ rear their heads once again, snapping up the best parcels, regardless of price
Finance Ministry data shows in the first five months, local government land sales totaled 1.17 trillion yuan, an 8.3% rise on a year ago
China’s state-owned enterprises have been told to scale back on aggressive land purchases, after a flurry of high-profile deals in recent months have been blamed for pushing up home prices.
Citing unnamed developers, Shanghai-based news portal The Paper reported on Tuesday the warning was by various regulators, including the state-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission, commonly referred to as SASAC.
The report followed several cases of central SOE-affiliated developers paying record prices for parcels of land in first- and second-tier cities.
Cinda Real Estate, a developer owned by one of the country’s biggest asset managers which is administered by the Finance Ministry, recently paid 5.8 billion yuan（(HK$6.8 billion) for a plot in suburban Shanghai.
The record 303-per cent premium over the auction reserve, drove the price close to 48,000 yuan per square metre of buildable area.
The company also snapped up a plot of land in Hangzhou last week, beating 17 other bidders to the punch, with a 12.3 billion yuan offer.