Central SOEs set new land price records
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Beijing's real estate market witnessed three records on March 15, including one that reset itself within the same day, all indicating that housing prices are not likely to drop this year.
Auctions for six land projects on some of Beijing's prime area rounded up a total of 14.35 billion yuan (US$2.10 billion).
A project in Wangjing broke the record for floor price at 27,529 yuan (US$4030.60) per square meter. It was then reset by an even higher offer for a land project in the Jimenqiao area, at more than 30,000 yuan (US$4392.39) per square meter. Over in Yizhuang, a bid of 5.24 billion yuan (US$767.20 million) set the record in terms of package price.
The three record sales were all made by central state-owned enterprises (SOE). Unconventionally, both China Ordnance Group Company and China National Tobacco Company, players that don't originally belong to the real estate industry, have shown up in the game. Analysts say the rush into the real estate business reflects the industry's lucrative profit.
Companies including Sino-Ocean, CITIC Real Estate, Poly, Vanke, COFCO, Greenland and CSCEC were all in attendance at the auctions.
In the morning's auction for Wangjing, Victoria Real Estate affiliated with China National Tobacco and Sino-Ocean were the only remaining contestants when the package price exceeded 3.8 billion yuan (US$556.37 million). Sino-Ocean then raised the bid to 4.08 billion (US$597.36 million), pushing Victoria to back out of the race. Comments such as, "A new bidding king!" and "Housing prices shall rise again!" were heard simultaneously in the room.
Soon after, CITIC Real Estate made an unrivalled offer of 5.24 billion yuan for a project in Yizhuang, exceeding last year's record bid for package price in Shunyi district by almost 200 million yuan.
China Ordnance Group's subsidiary Expo Hongye Real Estate pocketed a land in Haidian district at a record floor price of 30,197 yuan per square meter, or 1.76 billion yuan in total.
The auctions were originally scheduled for March 8. Trade insiders say they were delayed so as to avoid "producing new bidding kings during the CPPCC and NPC sessions."
The 14.35 billion yuan for the six projects represents a 55.89 percent surplus from all of February's transactions, which totalled 9.205 trillion yuan. So far this year, registered land transfer fees from the government to developers have almost reached 40 billion yuan. This accounts for more than 40 percent of last year's entire volume.
Beijing's second-hand real estate markets around the auctioned land projects felt an instant impact from the bids. According to one real estate agent, property sellers all rushed to raise their listed prices. Some potential buyers were shocked, claiming this was "unacceptable," while others hurried to make their transactions before prices increase yet again.
Previously during the national parliamentary sessions, delegates urged for the government to control the real estate market.
Despite their pleas, land prices are continuing to hit new highs. Chen Yunfeng, a high-profile figure in the real estate trade, thinks the land prices that are sold to developers from the government and the housing prices contribute to each other's growth.
According to Chen, given the limited vacant land, there's basically no possibility that the housing prices in Beijing will go down this year.
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