Beijing property sale points to land bank rush

A residential property site inside Beijing’s fourth ring road sold for US$594.42 million yesterday as developers build up their land banks on the back of rising home sales, the South China Morning Post reported. Franshion Properties outbid 10 other developers including Soho China, China Vanke and Sino-Ocean Land Holdings. Franshion’s bid was 147% higher than the reserve price of US$241.57 million. Analysts said that developers are now aggressively building their land banks in order to remain profitable as most did not buy land in 2008.