Land price in Q2 heats up

The price for land allocated for residential use rose in the second quarter, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The average price in 105 cities monitored by the ministry came to 4,799 yuan ($782) per square meter, an increase of 2.1 percent over the first quarter and up 6.1 percent over the same period last year.

As the last round of tough curbs by the government failed to subdue property prices, developers' confidence in Beijing and other first-tier cities was strengthened. As a result, they steered away from the once popular third and fourth-tier cities to flock back into first-tier cities.

A land plot in Beijing last Tuesday was sold for 2.36 billion yuan to COFCO Property (Group) Co. That implies a price of about 46,000 yuan a square meter, a record high in the capital.

Last Friday, Excellence Real Estate Group Ltd, a Shenzhen-based developer, bought two plots of land in Qianhai, a new development district in Shenzhen, for a record 12.37 billion yuan.