The competition for prime land parcels in first-tier cities has gone wild: one plot in Beijing went through 254 rounds of bidding, and a 10-billion-yuan "land king" in Shanghai stunned the entire market.
On July 28, Plot 1019-0013-1 at Jiuxianqiao, Chaoyang District, Beijing went on auction. Eventually China Overseas New Town defeated five competitors and won the bid at 4.6814 billion yuan, with a floor price of about 81,100 yuan/㎡. This marks China Overseas New Town's first breakthrough in Beijing's land market this year.
Source: Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources
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How fierce is the competition?
The whole bidding process lasted for 254 rounds, making it the first residential plot in Beijing this year with more than 200 bidding rounds; the premium rate is 25.8%, which also sets the highest record in Beijing since the beginning of this year.
The reason is no other: the plot is outstanding and highly competitive.
In terms of location, it is located at Jiuxianqiao on the East Fourth Ring Road, surrounded by two metro lines, with mature supporting facilities including Indigo, Solana, and Chaoyang Park.
In terms of product attributes, the plot has a floor area ratio of only 2.5, a height limit of 80 meters, and features pure residential property with zero supporting construction, making it the plot with the best development conditions in the Jiuxianqiao sector at present.
With a total construction area of 57,800 ㎡, if calculated based on an average unit size of 160 ㎡, it can provide about 360 housing units. The community has a moderate scale, so the developer will face relatively low de-stocking pressure in the follow-up period.
More importantly, the popularity of the sector has been fully verified, and the competition pressure is low. At present, there are only two new residential properties in Jiuxianqiao: one is Beijing Chen Yuan developed by China Construction Land, with about 600 units almost sold out; the other is Wanjijiuxu built by China Overseas New Town, with nearly 80% of its 370 units completed online signing. The sector has been highly popularized and has a certain customer base, so the future de-stocking prospect of the new project is relatively clear.
The plot auctioned today is exactly the second project of China Overseas New Town in Jiuxianqiao. It is only 500 meters away from Wanjijiuxu, so the customer groups, channels and brand recognition of Wanjijiuxu can be fully reused for the new project, which can also further enhance China Overseas New Town's brand influence.
However, it cannot be ignored that China Overseas New Town will also face the test of balancing development: there are still about 80 units available for sale in Wanjijiuxu at present. How to ensure the smooth de-stocking of the old project while accumulating potential customers and building momentum for the new project is a key topic that China Overseas needs to carefully study next.
For Chaoyang District, China Overseas New Town is still a "newcomer". It used to focus its business in Shijingshan District, and only entered Chaoyang for the first time with an investment of 15.3 billion yuan in November 2024. In addition to Wanjijiuxu, it has also laid out two projects in Xiaohongmen and Shibalidian, namely China Overseas · Time Realm and Chaoyang ONE, but the de-stocking progress of both is relatively slow. As of today, the former has 132 units completed online signing, with a de-stocking rate of 30%; the latter has 206 units completed online signing, with a de-stocking rate of only about 23%.
Winning the Jiuxianqiao plot this time is not only a supplementary land reserve for China Overseas New Town, but also may be a turning point to reverse its downward trend.
It is worth mentioning that this plot is split from the old renovation plot of Jiuxianqiao. Plot 0013 was originally to be transferred as a single plot, but later split into two plots, and the one auctioned today is Plot 1. The planning has also been adjusted at the same time: the floor area ratio has been reduced from the original 2.8 to 2.5, the height limit has been increased from 60 meters to 80 meters, and supporting facilities such as nursery have been removed.
In fact, many plots in Beijing this year have undergone similar planning adjustments, which mainly focus on reducing the floor area ratio and cutting the total construction area. For example, the Taipingqiao plot in Fengtai that went on auction in May had its planned above-ground construction area adjusted from 86,500 ㎡ to 72,100 ㎡, and the floor area ratio reduced from 2.4 to 2.0; there is also the shantytown renovation plot at No.43 Huangzhuang Village, Shijingshan, whose floor area ratio was reduced from 2.55 to 2.15, total construction area shrunk from 84,900 ㎡ to 72,300 ㎡, and the starting price was even reduced by 2 billion yuan.
The only purpose of the planning adjustment is to lower the development threshold and attract real estate enterprises to participate in the auction with better plot conditions.
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On the same day, the 6th batch of land auctions of the year in Shanghai also kicked off in full swing. The total starting price of 3 plots including those in Xuhui District reached 17.872 billion yuan, among which the Badaitou plot in Yangpu District with a starting price of over 11.8 billion yuan is the highlight of this auction.
After more than 200 rounds of fierce bidding from China Overseas, Jinmao & C&D and other bidders, the Poly + CR Land consortium finally won the bid at 16.12 billion yuan, with a premium rate of 35.83% and a transaction floor price of about 102,000 yuan/㎡. If excluding commercial supporting construction and other facilities, the floor price of its residential part has exceeded 110,000 yuan/㎡. Based on this estimate, the average pre-sale price of the future project may reach 150,000+ yuan.
Source: the Internet
It not only refreshed two records of Yangpu District: the highest unit price land king and the highest total price land king, but also became the residential-related land plot with the highest total transaction price in public transfer in Shanghai since 2024, as well as the first 10-billion-yuan level plot with premium transaction in the history of Shanghai's land auction.
This "bottom-of-the-box" luxury residential plot has extremely high value.
Its location is impeccable. It is located in the core area of the riverside within the inner ring of Yangpu, less than 400 meters away from the Huangpu River. Across the river to the southwest is Lujiazui, and it is also adjacent to the North Bund area to the west.
At the same time, the plot is almost within zero walking distance of Yangshupu Road Station on Line 4, and there are three metro lines including Line 4, Line 12 and Line 18 800 meters away, so the transportation is extremely convenient.
As for the plot itself, the total residential floor area is about 147,800 ㎡, with a floor area ratio of around 2.3 and a height limit of 80 meters. Such a large scale means that the future project has sufficient space for community construction, and its riverside location advantage also allows the high-floor units to have a panoramic view of the skyline of Lujiazui and the North Bund.
The prospect of the sector is also very promising. It is located in the "World Living Room" area of the central activity zone planned by Shanghai, with a number of heavyweight new economic headquarters gathered around. For example, 100 meters to the south is Douyin Shanghai Riverside Center, which is expected to start personnel settlement in the fourth quarter of this year. The headquarters base of China Communications Construction Group Shanghai on the other side of the road to the south has also been put into use.
Within the range of about 2 kilometers to the northeast, projects including Meituan Shanghai Technology Center, Bilibili New Generation Industrial Park, and CECEP Shanghai Headquarters will also be completed one after another this year.
Soon, tens of thousands of high-income talents will gather here. Where there are people, there is demand; where there is demand, there is market. For the Badaitou plot, the inflow of industrial talents will provide the most direct and solid purchasing power support.
It can be said that this is the most valuable residential plot in Yangpu at present.
Poly seems determined to win this plot.
As early as after the plot was listed for transfer, Poly released the bidding plan, showing that the overall investment budget of the Yangpu project is as high as 19.5 billion yuan.
This confidence is inseparable from Poly's years of deep cultivation in Yangpu. In recent years, Poly has successively laid out a number of 100,000+ yuan/㎡ luxury residential projects in Yangpu, including Poly · Bund Sequence BUND45, BUND88, Haiyue Bund Sequence BUND98, Bund Qi PARK77, and Bund Yao, most of which have achieved excellent de-stocking performance. For example, Poly · Haiyue Bund Sequence BUND98 with an average price of about 130,000 yuan/㎡ was first launched in May last year, with 223 units sold out on the opening day and a subscription rate of up to about 248%.
Since the beginning of this year, Poly has maintained a strong momentum in Shanghai's land market. In the first half of the year, it won a total of 4 plots in Shanghai, with the equity transaction amount of about 8.591 billion yuan, ranking first in the industry in terms of the number of plots acquired.
Not only in Shanghai, Poly has also won two plots in Shenzhen in June alone. First, it won the residential plot at Yuehai Subdistrict, Nanshan at 5.772 billion yuan, with a transaction floor price of 108,700 yuan/㎡, breaking the record of unit price for residential plots in Shenzhen; then it won the residential plot in Bao'an at 10.51 billion yuan, becoming the new total price land king of Shenzhen. In Beijing, in May, Poly won the Taipingqiao plot in Fengtai at 4.154 billion yuan, with a premium rate of 15.40%.
According to the statistics of China Index Academy, in the ranking of real estate enterprises' equity land acquisition amount in the first half of this year, Poly Development topped the list with 37.7 billion yuan.
Source: China Index Academy
Behind the expansion of land reserves may be the pressure on Poly's performance and the urgency to seek breakthroughs.
The 2026 semi-annual report of Poly Development shows that in the first half of the year, Poly achieved operating revenue of 102.897 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11.95%; the contracted sales amount reached 135.106 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.93%. Both operating revenue and sales have declined, and the pressure is self-evident.
To achieve good harvest, land is the key. Therefore, Poly took a contrarian move in the land auction market: obtaining future growth space through high-quality plots in core cities.
As for its partner, CR Land, it also has strong strength. In the first half of this year, it became the sales champion in Shanghai with the sales performance of 28.95 billion yuan, and multiple projects including Yunqi Riverside and Bund Ruifu have achieved excellent de-stocking performance. In particular, Yunqi Riverside has an average de-stocking rate of nearly 90% in four openings, and with a sales volume of 11.5 billion yuan, it has become the only 10-billion-yuan large-scale project in Shanghai in the first half of the year.
With Poly's deep regional cultivation, CR Land's strength support, the scarce location advantage of Yangpu Riverside, and the high de-stocking momentum of top luxury properties in Shanghai, the subsequent market performance of the Badaitou plot is full of imagination.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Future Habitat", written by Future Habitat, and authorized for release by 36Kr.