1st LD Writethru: Land sales slow in China

Land sales slowed sharply in China last year, as the property market cooled and the country faced economic headwinds, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Tuesday.

Land sales by local governments amounted to 3.37 trillion yuan (520.5 billion U.S. dollars), plunging 21.6 percent year on year, according to a statement posted on the MOF website.

Sales fell year on year by 23.6 percent in east China, by 17.3 percent in central China, and by 21.2 percent in the west.

Only a handful of cities and provincial-level regions saw sales growth, with Shenzhen rising the most -- by 36.9 percent year on year.

"Shenzhen's robust land sales were mainly due to its red-hot property market and the booming economy, which pushed land prices higher," the statement said.

The northeastern port city of Dalian saw land sales dive the most, with a fall of 56.4 percent. Ningbo in east China's Zhejiang Province, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north were both down by more than half, according to the statement.

A total of 221,400 hectares of land hit the market last year, down 18.6 percent year on year. Land areas for commercial use and residential development fell 24.7 percent and 19.1 percent year on year, the statement said.

Land prices grew mildly last year in the 105 cities monitored by the MOF. The price of sites for residential projects stood at 5,484 yuan per square meter, rising 3.92 percent year on year.

Commercial land prices increased 2.7 percent from one year earlier to 6,729 yuan per square meter, according to the statement.

The soft demand for land has been linked to the country's economic slowdown. China's economy grew by 6.9 percent year on year in 2015, the slowest annual expansion in a quarter of a century.

The property market is under record high destocking pressure after years of rapid development. Property developers turned cautious amid mounting inventories and tough market conditions, which also dampened demand for land, the statement said. Endi