Sales of land for residential use reached 1.5 trillion yuan ($223.4 billion) in the first nine months of the year, up 56 percent from the same period last year, domestic news portal ce.cn reported on Wednesday.
Nationwide, a total of 15,585 land deals, involving 575 million square meters of land for residential and other uses, were struck from January to September in a total of 300 Chinese cities, according to the ce.cn report.
The number of deals decreased by 7 percent and the transaction area declined by 2 percent from the same period last year but income from land sales by local governments increased 40 percent year-on-year to 19.2 trillion yuan, surpassing the yearly gains for the whole of 2015.
Wuxi, in East China's Jiangsu Province, saw income from land sales increase by 470 percent to 28.23 billion yuan on a yearly basis, making it the top Chinese city in terms of land sale income growth rate.
Four cities - Nanjing and Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province, Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province, and Shanghai - saw their income from land sales surpass 100 billion yuan.
Nanjing saw land sale income of 140.5 billion yuan, up 183 percent year-on-year, making it the No.1 city in terms of sales income.
Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou saw land sale income of 136 billion, 126.9 billion, and 113 billion, respectively.
Their annual growth rates were 27 percent, 163 percent, and 186 percent, respectively.
To rein in runaway housing prices, 22 cities issued restrictions on home purchases and raised down payment requirements as of Wednesday.
The ce.cn report said on Wednesday that property developers are still eager to obtain land in first-tier and second-tier cities during the fourth quarter, citing experts.
But Beijing and Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province saw their income from land sales drop by over 50 percent from the same period last year.
