61% Premium! Real Estate Developers Compete Fiercely in Core Cities

Since May, the enthusiasm for land auctions in core cities has been continuously heating up, with many high-quality land parcels being sold at high premiums.

Among them, the fourth batch of land auctions in Shanghai was highly competitive, with "non-ceiling" bidding for two consecutive days, attracting an "all-star lineup" of real estate enterprises. Eventually, all 5 residential-related land parcels were sold, raking in a total of 11.04 billion yuan, with an average premium rate as high as 34%. The premium rates of the land parcel in Pujiang Town, Minhang and the combined land parcel in Nanmatou, Pudong New Area both exceeded 40%.

The land auction markets in Suzhou and Nanjing have respectively set new records. A residential land parcel by Jinji Lake in Suzhou Industrial Park was sold at a floor price of 68,920 yuan per square meter, with a premium of 30.04%, refreshing the record for the floor price of residential-related land in Suzhou and becoming the new unit-price "land king" in Jiangsu Province. The G16 land parcel in Xuanwu District, Nanjing set a new record for the highest premium rate in land transfer in Nanjing in the past 10 years, with a premium rate of 50.24%.

In Hangzhou, the Shangjiubao Unit land parcel, as the first non-price-limited land parcel in the area that had been out of supply for nearly 3 years, was won by Greentown China at a total price of 2.074 billion yuan, with a premium rate as high as 61.51%, the highest premium rate for residential land in Hangzhou this year, though the land price did not reach a new high. In addition, after 49 rounds of bidding, Binjiang Group finally won the Beiganxi land parcel in Xiaoshan District at 2.43 billion yuan, with a floor price of 28,419 yuan per square meter and a premium rate of 42.09%...

Yan Yuejin, the deputy dean of the Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, said that the investment logic of real estate enterprises has changed significantly. Enterprises are now more concerned about the safety of projects, the ability to sell properties, and the return on investment. High-quality land parcels in core cities can provide relatively certain sales expectations, so they have become the focus of capital allocation.

Industry insiders believe that these high-level cities, with their strong economic vitality, continuous population inflow, and stable market resilience, have become the "hot core areas" of the current land market, fully reflecting the concentrated bets and fierce competition of real estate enterprises on high-quality resources in high-level cities.

In terms of market enthusiasm, the average premium rate in May was 5.8%, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points from the previous month and 1.3 percentage points from the same period last year. Thanks to the continuous efforts of each city to control the increment and optimize the supply, high-quality land parcels still maintain a spot-like enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm for land auctions is still higher than the average level since the fourth quarter of 2025.

Looking at the land-acquiring enterprises, the current land market is still divided among central and state-owned enterprises, large-scale private enterprises, and urban investment platforms. Urban investment platforms have an absolute advantage in the number of land acquisitions, and most of them are providing support in third- and fourth-tier cities. Central and state-owned enterprises are actively investing in core cities.

In terms of enterprise performance, from January to May 2026, except for Binjiang Group, a private enterprise, the top ten in terms of land acquisition amount (full-caliber, the same below) are all leading central and state-owned enterprises. In addition, the total land acquisition amount of the top ten enterprises accounts for more than half of the total amount of 100 typical enterprises, showing an obvious "gap" in land acquisition amounts among enterprises.

Specifically: China Resources Land, Yuexiu Property, and Poly Developments have spent more than 20 billion yuan on land acquisition, ranking in the top three. Greentown China, China Jinmao, and the private enterprise Binjiang Group have spent more than 10 billion yuan. The land acquisition amounts of the remaining 4 TOP10 real estate enterprises in the first five months are still less than 10 billion yuan.

The CRIC Real Estate Research Institute pointed out that it is expected that core cities will continue to focus on the supply of high-quality low-density residential land. Coupled with the release of policy dividends for urban renewal, the confidence of real estate enterprises, mainly central and state-owned enterprises, in land acquisition will be steadily restored. The enthusiasm for residential land in core areas will remain high. The conversion of commercial land to residential land and the redevelopment of low-efficiency stock land will become an important supplement to the supply, meeting the needs of population inflow and urban function upgrading.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Leju Finance", author: Liu Zhiying, published by 36Kr with authorization.