THIRTY-SEVEN Chinese developers Monday joined in on fierce bidding for five residential sites in Shenzhen, an event which industry insiders call a landmark auction of the past two decades for the city, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

After more than 300 rounds of bids lasting three hours, the five land parcels were successfully sold at prices totaling 22.38 billion yuan (US$3.25 billion).

The five residential sites, covering an area of about 17 hectares, are located in Bao’an, Longhua, Guangming and Pingshan districts. Each of the land parcels sits in the core area of the districts, with one in Bao’an, one in Longhua, one in Pingshan and two in Guangming.

According to requirements, developers of the five auctioned plots must build talent housing for the government. The property rights of the allocated talent housing belong to the government and should be transferred gratuitously by the developers after completion.

The housing and construction departments of each district are responsible for receiving, operating and supervising the talent housing.

Homebuyers are also banned from transferring the ownership of the commercial housing within three years from the date of obtaining the apartments’ property ownership certificates.

Despite strict price and sales restrictions, the auction attracted domestic mega-developers such as Vanke, Poly and China Resources as well as local real estate companies like China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings Co. Ltd.

For instance, the bidding price of the land parcel in Xixiang Subdistrict of Bao’an started at 4.07 billion yuan, with 12 developers participating in the bids. The land parcel was snatched by Guangzhou Yuexiu Property Co. Ltd. with 5.9 billion yuan.

One of the land parcels in Guangming District was open to bids by 19 developers at a starting price of 1.38 billion yuan. The hammer price reached 2.01 billion yuan offered by Powerchina (Shenzhen) Real Estate Co. Ltd.

Shenzhen will continue to supply residential sites in the second half of the year to stabilize expectations in the local housing market, according to authorities. The city will also lay equal stress on commercial housing and government-subsidized housing and increase the supply of talent housing.          (Zhang Yu)