New York

THE squeeze is on.A tightening of leverage, coupled with soaring land costs, looks set to end the home price windfall that China's developers have enjoyed this year.

Prices of new dwellings, excluding government-subsidised housing, gained in March in 62 of the 70 cities tracked by the government, compared with 56 in February, the National Bureau of Statistics said last month. On Monday, Longfor Properties Co said contracted sales between January and April jumped 200 per cent year-on-year to 60 billion yuan (S$12.26 billion), while Credit Suisse Group AG noted that the 20 Hong Kong publicly traded Chinese real estate firms it tracks posted an 87 per cent rise in first-quarter sales.