BEIJING - Major property companies are more competitive than smaller players in the Chinese market and the trend will continue in the years to come.

Some 131 developers, whose sales exceeded 10 billion yuan (around $1.45 billion) each in 2016, took nearly 50 percent share of the country's property market, said Huang Yu, a senior researcher at the China Index Academy.

Huang said that the market share of big developers would continue a rapid increase over the next three years.

By 2020, 21 developers would likely to see their sales reach 100 billion yuan each, Huang added.

"There will be higher concentration in China's property market over the next five to ten years, with big developers gaining more market share from smaller ones," said Sun Hongbin, president of Sunac China Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed real estate company.

Big property companies reported solid results for 2016 partly due to rapid increases in property prices in first and second-tier cities.

Wanda Group, the country's largest commercial property company, said its real estate sales hit 112.27 billion yuan last year, while its rental incomes rose 29.6 percent year-on-year to 19.58 billion yuan.

The Guangdong-based Country Garden, another major developer, saw its sales more than double to 308.84 billion yuan.

Despite strong results, Huang warned developers of possible risks stemming from high leverage ratio.