China's 2009 land transfer revenue jumps 43% to $208 bln on booming property market

BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhua) -- China's land transfer revenue jumped 43.2 percent year on year in 2009 to hit 1.42 trillion yuan (208.49 billion U.S. dollars), as the nation's property market boomed.

Land transfer fees fell 19.7 percent in the first half of last year as the global financial crisis dampened property developers' confidence before rising 110.9 percent in the second half, after the worst of the financial crisis had past, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday.

Nearly two thirds of the revenue came from coastal provinces, the Ministry said.

China spent 1.23 trillion yuan of the land transfer revenue, a rise of 28.9 percent from a year earlier.

Land acquisition and compensation for demolition accounted for 40.4 percent of the total expenditure, while urban construction and land development was 27.1 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.

Land transfer fees are local governments' main source of income, and they are major beneficiaries of the country's overheated real estate market.

House prices almost doubled in big cities like Beijing in 2009.

Separately, a total of 20,556 apartments were sold in the first three months of 2010 in Beijing, up 15 percent from a year earlier, with 13,268 apartments sold in March, up 40 percent year on year, the China Land Surveying and Planning Institute said Tuesday.