Local governments' revenue from land sales dropped 12.6 percent year-on-year in 2012 to about 2 trillion yuan ($321.4 billion), an industry report said.

The report, released by the China Index Academy, a Beijing-based industry research institute, is based on data from 300 Chinese cities.

Decreasing land transactions resulting from the property purchasing limit policy, are the major reason for the declining land revenue, analysts said.

Transfer fees from land used for residential developments dropped 14.3 percent to 1.3 trillion yuan.

Beijing and Shanghai, which used to be the top land revenue earners, this year slipped to No. 7 and No. 4, respectively. Shanghai's land transfer fees declined 27 percent year-on-year, while fees in Beijing decreased 20 percent.

Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu emerged as the top three cities with the largest land transfer fees. Both Wuhan and Chengdu's land revenue surged over 50 percent compared with 2011.