(Yicai) March 12 -- A plot in Chengdu’s latest land auction was sold at a record price per square meter, as the real estate market in the capital city of southwestern Sichuan province continues to improve.

Three residential plots were auctioned in Chengdu yesterday. State-backed China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings won one in the Chengdu High-tech Industrial Development Zone after 132 rounds of bidding for CNY2.7 billion (USD373.4 million), a 70 percent premium.

With an area of 42,587 sqm and a planned building area of 85,175 sqm, the plot was sold at an average floor price of CNY31,700 (USD4,385) per sqm, breaking the previous CNY27,300 per sqm record set last September by Ke Holdings, a Chinese realtor that ventured in the property market last year.

Chengdu was one of the first cities to see its land market recover last year after China introduced a series of policies to support the real estate market. In January, its new home prices rose 0.7 percent from December, up for the third consecutive month, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. Pre-owned home prices inched up 0.2 percent in the period, up for the fourth month in a row.

The fact that Chengdu’s land price per sqm reached a new high shows the continued recovery of the land market in the first two months of the year and indicates that national policies to promote the property market have been effective, Yan Yuejin, vice president of the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, told Yicai.

The reappearance of active land acquisitions in key cities is conducive to the stabilization and recovery of the Chinese real estate market, Yan added.

The other two plots sold at Chengdu’s auction yesterday were won by Zhuhai Huafa Properties and Zhongxin Real Estate Development for CNY2 billion and CNY373 million (USD51.6 million), respectively, at premium rates of over 30 percent.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione