Shanghai launched 20 plots of land for public bidding yesterday, the first time this year, after measures aimed at curbing surging housing prices were introduced.

With a combined area of 178 hectares, most of the land plots are located in suburban areas of Shanghai, including Baoshan, Jiading and Minhang districts and Chongming Island, according to a Shanghai Housing and Land Administrative Bureau's statement on its official Website.

Domestic and foreign real estate developers should submit their bidding applications to district land bureaus and the deadline for the submission varies, depending on plot area.

Analysts said the municipal government made the move in anticipation the central government would not introduce new measures for the property market in the near term.

China launched a slew of new loan, tax and land policies in the past three months including raising the down payment ratio and income tax levies to cool an overheated real estate market.

"These might be the last set of property market measures in the near term, and the central government might likely watch and evaluate the impact of the recent measures before introducing new ones," said Tony Tsang, an analyst with Citigroup Research.

The land bidding also seeks to gauge the response from developers who may have lost their appetite for this type of bidding as more well-funded developers look for land in the secondary market.

"The land in the secondary market is usually offered at a more attractive price by some financially constraint sellers and may have better location," said Zheng Kangrui, vice general manager of Shanghai Vanke Real Estate Group Co, a unit under Vanke Group, China's biggest listed property firm.

The bureau didn't release an exact ratio requirement for apartments less than 90 square meters for each residential land in yesterday's bidding invitation, saying it will vary on a plot basis.

A central government policy requires at least 70 percent of new apartments built in a city to be less than 90 square meters.

The current ratio is 40 percent as small size apartments mean higher costs and low profit margin for developers.

(Shanghai Daily August 18, 2006)