(Yicai Global) July 7 -- Chinese cities have had mixed fortunes in their first-half land sales, with some lower-tier cities struggling to find buyers, according to the latest data from industry researchers.

Demand remained strong in first-tier cities. Beijing made CNY107.6 billion (USD14.8 billion) in revenue from land sales in the six months ended June 30, and Hangzhou, capital of highly developed Zhejiang province, logged CNY103.2 billion (USD14.2 billion), a report on 50 cities by the China Index Academy showed. 

Shanghai and Guangzhou as well as provincial capitals Xi’an and Chengdu all earned between CNY44.5 billion and CNY59.6 billion from selling land, while Suzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin and Shenzhen made between CNY30.4 billion and CNY38.5 billion. Ten other cities, including Hefei, made CNY10 billion to CNY30 billion.

But the remaining cities each posted less than CNY10 billion in income from first-half land sales, including the provincial capitals of Jinan, Zhengzhou, Nanchang, Changchun, and Taiyuan.

Real estate developers are competing more intensely for the most highly prized land in prominent cities such as Beijing, with plots often selling at the upper limit set by the government and the number of auction participants hitting a record high. But for most cities, the auctions were more tepid in the first half, the report noted.

The land market was generally cold nationwide in the first six months of the year, a report by the CRIC Research Center stated, noting that developers are eager to buy land in core first-tier cities, while some auctions in third- and fourth-tier cities attracted no buyers at all. 

Most cities did not sell all of the land on their supply lists in the first half. Transactions even dropped in some first-tier cities, the CRIC report said.

The real estate market varies greatly from city to city, but the competition for land in the leading urban areas will become more intense in the coming years, said Cao Jingjing, general manager of the index business department of the China Index Academy.

The first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen were the top four in terms of land market attractiveness, with Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan, and Xi’an in fifth to 10th place, the CIA report said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Tom Litting