China Vanke Corp, the country's largest publicly listed developer, said sales rose more than 20 percent to 12.22 billion yuan (US$1.79 billion) in the first quarter of this year after it sold more homes in the Bohai Rim area and in central China.

The Shenzhen-based firm sold a total of 1.52 million square meters of houses nationwide during the first quarter, an annual rise of 33 percent, it said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday.

"Vanke's first-quarter performance was actually in line with our earlier expectations," said Wang Yi, an industry analyst with Beijing Gao Hua Securities Co. "Significant price cuts in Beijing and surrounding cities helped push sales a lot in the Bohai Rim area.''

Home sales soared 77 percent in the northern Bohai Rim area and 36 percent in central China regions while they dropped 35 percent in the southern Pearl River Delta region and 18 percent in the eastern Yangtze River Delta region during the same period, the company said.

Data showed Vanke's sales totaled 2.19 billion yuan in January, 3.89 billion yuan in February and 6.14 billion yuan last month.

Guangzhou-based Poly Real Estate Group Co, another major developer, also reported on Wednesday that sales almost doubled to 6.48 billion yuan in the first quarter after it sold 763,300 square meters of new homes across the country, a surge of 132 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.

New home sales picked up significantly over the past month in major Chinese cities, with Beijing leading others in terms of units sold, industry statistics showed.

A total of 15,034 units of new houses were sold in Beijing last month, a month-on-month increase of 81 percent. Shanghai sold 13,548 units of new homes, a 100-percent jump from February, and Shenzhen sold 8,509 units, a 61-percent surge from February.

"The recent pickup in sales deals in Shanghai can be attributed to the positive measures from the government, increased disposable incomes over the past year and improved market sentiment," said Michael Klibaner, head of research for local operations at Jones Lang LaSalle.

(Shanghai Daily April 10, 2009)