The Zhitong Finance App learned that the China Index Research Institute released the ranking of the top 100 land acquisition companies in the country for January 2024. In January 2024, the total amount of land acquired by TOP100 companies was 85.6 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 44.8% over the previous year. The main reasons are: first, in January 2023, due to the impact of only one-city land auctions in key cities and erroneous peaks during the Spring Festival holiday, supply declined seasonally, and the land acquisition base of enterprises was small; second, since October 2023, 22 cities have successively “lifted land price limits”, driving a recovery in land popularity in key cities and regions. The intention of housing enterprises to acquire land has recovered, but sustainability remains to be seen.

Judging from the value added, China Merchants Shekou (001979.SZ) and China's Xiong'an Group ranked in the top two. In January 2024, China Merchants Shekou topped the list with 15 billion yuan; China's Xiong'an Group added 13.5 billion yuan in value and acquired a large area of land in Xiong'an New Area. TOP10 companies added a total value of 102.2 billion yuan in January 2024, accounting for 29.7% of TOP100 companies. The additional value threshold was 1.4 billion yuan, an increase of 600 million yuan over the same period in 2023.

In January 2024, land was listed for sale in many cities. On the one hand, there is significant differentiation between local cities. According to statistics from the China Index Research Institute, up to now, 18 out of 22 cities have implemented “abolition of land price limits”. Ningbo's premium rate upper limit has been raised from 15% to 30%. Only Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen strictly implement “land price limits.” After several cities lifted the upper price limit, land auctions for high-quality land in core cities heated up and competition was fierce, driving the average premium rate to rise markedly. For example, out of the 6 parcels of land sold in Hangzhou in January, 5 were premium transactions. Among them, the XSCQ1201-25 plot of North Ganxi Unit, located in Xiaoshan District, was contested by Binjiang Group for 2,903.2 billion yuan after 51 rounds of bidding, with a premium rate of 30.59%. However, at the same time, the local auction market in some cities is still sluggish, and sentiment has not improved. Land plots are generally sold at reserve prices. Among them, 6 parcels sold in Chengdu, 15 parcels sold in Jinan, and 2 parcels each sold in Changsha and Nanjing were sold at reserve prices; 2 parcels of land sold in Guangzhou were all sold at reserve prices.

On the other hand, the division of different sectors within the same city is also obvious, and land transactions in non-core areas and remote suburbs are still sluggish. Currently, neither Beijing nor Shanghai have “lifted the land price limit”. In January, Beijing sold 4 parcels of land, all with reasonable upper limits. Of these, 2 were sold at the peak price and 2 were sold at the bottom price; Shanghai launched a total of 2 parcels of land, 1 at the bottom price.

Judging from the amount of land acquired by urban agglomeration, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region leads the country. In January 2024, the top 10 Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei enterprises acquired 22.2 billion yuan of land, ranking first among the four major urban agglomerations. Among them, the amount of land acquired by Shijiazhuang City Development Group was 5.3 billion yuan, ranking first in the list of land acquisition amounts for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei enterprises; top 10 companies in the Midwest ranked second with a land acquisition amount of 15.3 billion yuan; and the top 10 enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta ranked third with a land acquisition amount of 14.3 billion yuan. In terms of land acquisition area, the top 10 companies in the Midwest ranked first in the four regions with a land acquisition area of 4.67 million square meters.

Judging from the top 10 total residential land transaction prices in the country, the transaction amount threshold for land included in January was 1.8 billion yuan. Among the listed plots, plots 14-01, 16-02, and 17-07 of the SJS20005 unit in Sijing Town, Songjiang District, topped the list with a total price of 5.3 billion yuan. Among them, Beijing entered the list 4 lots with a total transaction amount of 12.2 billion yuan; Shanghai, Changsha, Hangzhou, Baoding, Foshan, and Xi'an each entered the list with a total transaction price of 5.3 billion yuan, 3 billion yuan, 2.9 billion yuan, 2.1 billion yuan, 1.9 billion yuan and 1.8 billion yuan respectively.