Seven out of 10 Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed property developers reported healthy profits in 2009 thanks to a property boom last year, data released by a leading equity data provider on Saturday showed.

According to Shanghai-based Wind Info, as of Friday, 19 listed property developers had released their annual report for 2009 and, in total, their net profits jumped 43.76 percent from a year earlier to reach 7.78 billion yuan (US$1.14 billion).

Thirteen of the 19 companies, including Shanghai-listed Poly Real Estate, posted an increase in their 2009 net profits, data from Wind Info showed.

Poly Real Estate, China's second largest property developer by market value, said on Feb. 3 that its 2009 net profit jumped 57.19percent from a year ago to 3.519 billion yuan (US$515 million).

In its 2009 annual report, the company attributed this to strong market demand and China's relatively loose monetary policy.

Poly's competitor, the country's largest listed property developer China Vanke Co., Ltd., had said its sales totaled 63.4 billion yuan in 2009 on the back of 6.64 million square meters it sold last year, up 32.5 percent and 19.1 percent from a year earlier, respectively.

Vanke has not yet released its 2009 report.

Losers in 2009 included Beijing Wantong Real Estate, which posted a 48-percent drop in 2009 net profits, and Shandong Tianye Co. Ltd., which recorded a loss of 56 million yuan last year.

In 2009, sales of houses in China increased 75 percent to 4.4 trillion yuan.

Prices rose the most in 15 years to an average of 4,695 yuan per square meter, up 24 percent year-on-year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

China currently has 109 property developers listed on the A-share stock markets in both Shanghai and Shenzhen. Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges together have some 1,710 various companies listed.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2010)