China News Service, Beijing, March 27 (Reporter Pang Wuji) In the first two months of this year, residential land transactions in China's first- and second-tier cities were highly active.
Data released by China's Ministry of Natural Resources in Beijing on the 27th showed that from January to February this year, the transaction volume of residential land in 70 large and medium-sized cities in China was 2,023 hectares, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%. Among them, the residential land in first-tier, second-tier, and third-tier cities increased year-on-year respectively. 39.5%, an increase of 42.0%, and a decrease of 36.4%.
Judging from the data, real estate land acquisition and investment focus are shifting to core cities. From a national perspective, from January to February 2024, China's residential land transaction volume was 4,845 hectares, a year-on-year decrease of 18.8%.
Chen Wenjing, market research director of the China Index Research Institute, told a reporter from China News Service that since the beginning of this year, the overall volume of residential land transactions has continued to shrink, but the year-on-year decrease in transaction area has narrowed. According to China Index data, since the beginning of this year (as of March 26), the planned construction area of residential land transactions in 300 cities in China has reached 35.11 million square meters, a year-on-year decrease of 10.6%, and the decline has narrowed 10.2 percentage points compared with the full year of 2023; land transfer revenue is 218 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%.
According to statistics from the agency, since the beginning of this year, the planned construction area of residential land transactions in first-tier cities has increased by approximately 88% year-on-year, and land transfer revenue has nearly doubled year-on-year. Chen Wenjing believes that the launch of high-quality land plots in some core cities has increased, and the pace of land sales has accelerated, driving the increase in residential land transaction area in core cities. Investments by real estate companies have focused more on core areas and high-quality sectors, and the market for land auctions is now divided. The increase in residential land use in core cities will, to a certain extent, boost the enthusiasm of enterprises to acquire land, and will also help drive the expected recovery of the land market.
Recently, local auction rules in various places have also been optimized and adjusted. Shanghai and Shenzhen have recently optimized the "70/90" policy (the proportion of housing area with a building area of less than 90 square meters per unit must account for more than 70%). Chen Wenjing said that this will help provide more matching land resources for diversified housing needs and promote the release of housing demand. (over)