(Yicai) July 12 -- China’s first-tier cities and more interestingly, certain counties such as Yiwu, have managed to buck the trend of falling home sales this year, thanks to luxurious new developments.

In Zhejiang province's Yiwu, known as the world's capital of small commodities, a luxury real estate project with an average price of more than CNY20 million (USD2.8 million) under Greentown China Holdings recently resulted in overwhelming demand. Some 325 parties showed interest, far exceeding the number of homes, and only 27 percent of the subscribers were successful.

The average price in Yiwu is CNY25,000 (USD3,448) per square meter but the above-mentioned project was priced at CNY60,000 per sqm, according to Ke Holdings, the operator of property agency chain Lianjia. All the apartments were snapped up in just two hours, resulting in sales of CNY2 billion (USD276 million).

In first-tier cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, homes that cost over CNY10 million are considered luxurious whereas in counties, houses that cost CNY3 million (USD413,100) are already deemed lavish.

The city known for the massive wholesale market is also leading the way in land auctions. In the first half, Yiwu earned almost CNY6.4 billion by transferring land use rights for 119 lots, ranking first in such income in Zhejiang and even coming close to Shenzhen's CNY6.6 billion.

Yongkang is No. 2 in Zhejiang as the county's land transfer income reached CNY2.3 billion in the first six months of this year, close to the numbers of Kunming and Nanning, two provincial capitals.

However, China's villages are not equal. Last year, the nation had 57 counties with a gross domestic product exceeding CNY100 billion (USD13.8 billion), and 10 of them logged higher than CNY200 billion figures in productivity. Kunshan remained the only county with a GDP higher than CNY500 billion.

As of late December 2021, the nation had over 1,470 counties and more than 390 county-level cities with a total permanent population of 250 million.

Zhejiang, a demonstration region in the nation's pursuit of common prosperity, leads the nation in urban and rural income, making some villages and cities outstanding in real estate development, said Ma Qianli and Zhou Qi, researchers at CRIC China.

Yiwu's property market is a special case as most counties are under great pressure and make few products, according to a research director of the E-House China Research & Development Institute. "Some of the top 100 counties can lead the way, but others have yet been unable to play catch-up."

Editor: Emmi Laine