Smaller Cities Upstage Big Brothers in Land Sales

Land sales in smaller Chinese cities are surging, outpacing their big brothers such as Beijing and Shanghai, as local governments try to increase their revenue and less draconian property curbs attract developers.

A monthly private survey found 36 second-tier cities raked in more than 1 trillion yuan ($150.5 billion) in total from selling land in the January-June period, up 33% from a year earlier, with the area of land sold rising by 31%. Land sales revenue in 260 third- and fourth-tier cities jumped by 43% year-on-year to 753.8 billion yuan in the same period, while sales by area increased 25%, according to a report (link in Chinese) by the China Index Academy, an affiliate of New York-listed Fang Holdings Ltd., formerly known as SouFun Holdings Ltd.