2010-04-16 07:51

BEIJING - Land sales in China's capital city resumed on Thursday after a month's suspension, but the temporary break did nothing to lower property fever.

By Thursday afternoon, four local developers had snatched up four commercial plots for a total of 1.06 billion yuan ($151 million).

Land auctions were halted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources last month, after property dealers feverishly purchased land, pushing prices to record-high levels in mid-March.

On March 15, Beijing sold six land parcels at a staggering price of 14.4 billion yuan.

The terms for these four properties range from 40 to 50 years. One parcel is in Shunyi district and the other three are in Pinggu district, all in suburban Beijing.

"The price is reasonable, because, compared to residential plots, commercial land is usually sold in a moderate way," said Li Mingyu, a real estate analyst at Beijing-based Hejun Consulting Co.

Residential land in Beijing will also soon resume transactions, after the Ministry of Land and Resources revealed a nationwide residential land use plan.

According to the plan issued by the ministry on Thursday, the national supply of residential land in 2010 will be 180,000 hectares, greatly increasing from last year's 76,461 hectares.

Beijing plans to provide 2,500 hectares of land for residential use this year. Fifty percent of this land will go to subsidized housing projects, up 60 percent over last year, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources.

In the first half of this year, 1,500 hectares of residential land and 500 hectares of commercial land will be sold publicly, accounting for 70 percent of the total year's supply.

"In the second half of 2010, we will continue to expand land supply, depending on the market demand. So, in Beijing, we are not short of land supply," Zeng Zanrong, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources, said last month.

But he admitted Beijing's land price has reached a record-high point.

"Developers are optimistic about the future of Beijing's housing market and it pushed up land prices," Zeng said.

"We don't want to see land prices be lifted too quickly. It should gradually rise and at a slow pace," he added.

In an executive meeting of the State Council on Wednesday, Premier Wen Jiabao urged local governments to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining a healthy property market by firmly curbing the house price increases. Local governments should increase the supply of residential land, he said.

This was the fifth time that Wen publicly spoke about China's property market since the last central economic work conference in December 2009.

For the first time, Wen urged relevant departments to quicken the pace to draw up rules on taxation, which may lead to more reasonable individual housing consumption.

China Daily