(Yicai) Dec. 3 -- State-owned property developers China Overseas Land and Investment and China Resources jointly purchased a land plot in the center of Shenzhen for a record price of CNY18.5 billion (USD2.5 billion).

China Overseas and China Resources bought the land at a premium rate of 46 percent at an auction yesterday after 295 rounds of bidding. The starting price was CNY12.7 billion.

Located next to a metro station, the land is one of the few residential plots in the surrounding business area with offices from large tech companies, such as Alibaba Group Holding and ByteDance. It is expected that apartments on the plot could cost over CNY133,000 (USD18,230) per square meter.

Shenzhen’s real estate market has been recovering since the end of September thanks to a series of supportive policies. Last month, nearly 8,080 contracts for new homes were signed in the city, up 95 percent from October, according to data from the Leyoujia Research Center, while 7,125 contracts for second-hand homes were signed, up 17 percent to the highest in nearly four years.

The average transaction price of pre-owned apartments in Shenzhen rose 2.1 percent in November from the previous month, reaching CNY64,300 (USD8,810) per sqm, data from the Leyoujia Research Center also showed.

In the past two years, China Overseas has purchased many land plots at high prices in the country’s four first-tier cities. Its sales in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen totaled CNY74.4 billion in the first six months of this year, accounting for over 60 percent of the total.

Editor: Futura Costaglione