BEIJING - Poly Real Estate Group, one of China's largest developers, posted surging sales in January despite a cooling property market nationwide.

Sales soared 106.4 percent year-on-year to 31.6 billion yuan ($5 billion) last month, the company said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

It was faster growth than the 47.2-percent increase reported in 2017.

The company saw net profits attributable to shareholders rise 26.3 percent last year to 15.7 billion yuan, according to an earlier unaudited financial report.

The strong performance came amid a cooling property market as local governments toughened measures to rein in speculation, especially in major cities.

China's overall property sales area increased by 7.9 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2017, down from 24.3 percent for the same period of 2016.

Big developers are more capable of pooling resources and funds in a tightened market environment, hence likely to grab larger market shares, said Elly Chen, head of China real estate research at Nomura.

The industrial consolidation will continue this year, she said.