(Yicai Global) Sept. 23 -- In Shanghai’s third land auction of the year, developers Poly Developments & Holdings Group and Longhua Construction & Development reportedly linked arms today to buy a plot in a popular downtown location for CNY3.6 billion (USD506 million).

After 20 rounds of bidding and a starting price of CNY3.3 billion, Guangzhou-based property giant Poly and Shanghai-based Longhua beat three other bidders for the right to develop a more than 19,700 square-meter residential plot in Shanghai’s Xuhui district, The Paper reported.

According to the auction documents, the estimated gross floor space after development is expected to be almost 49,322 sqm, and the seller requires at least 461 homes to be built on the site, with subsidized housing accounting for at least 5 percent of the total floorage.

An announcement by Shanghai’s land market authorities last month said that this year’s third round of land auctions would include 35 residential plots with a combined area of about 1.85 million sqm and a total starting price of CNY103 billion (USD1.45 billion). The latest round will run over three working days from today.

Shanghai’s first round of land auctions in 2022 did not go ahead until June because of the resurgence of Covid-19 in the city. Some 36 residential plots sold for CNY83.5 billion (USD11.7 billion). A second round in July saw 34 plots realize CNY78 billion.

Editor: Peter Thomas