China's developers to invest more in land this year

Hong Kong

CHINESE real estate developers surveyed by Reuters mostly plan to increase their land investments in 2017 as they shrug off record prices and government tightening measures while seeking to expand their market share.

The 10 companies contacted by phone and messaging represent half of the top 20 Chinese developers and together have close to US$300 billion in annual sales, mainly of apartments.

Eight of them said they were increasing their budgets, by between 10 and 50 per cent, and the other two said they would sustain their spending at 2016 levels.

Company officials responding to the survey asked for anonymity, many citing corporate quiet periods ahead of quarterly results.

The developers are buying land in Tier 1 cities, which are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, or in Tier 2 cities, such as Suzhou, Wuhan and Hefei, but most are shunning smaller Tier 3 and Ti…