Chongqing - The year in Chongqing's central urban area kicked off with a pivotal land auction in Xiyong, a key component of Chongqing's high-tech industrial development zone. Starting at 792 million yuan (USD 111 million), the auction marks a significant moment in the city's real estate landscape.

Western (Chongqing) Science City witnessed the first land auction in Chongqing's central urban area. (Photo/Longfor)

In the Western (Chongqing) Science City, this inaugural land auction of 2024 covered a plot area of about 78,000 square meters. The area, known for its rapid development and investment potential, is primed for transformation into a top-tier residential region.

The Longfor Phoenix Lakeside project, adjacent to the auctioned land, is making notable progress in visual and architectural design. The project garnered international acclaim by winning the 2023 London Design Awards for Architecture Design (Conceptual) Platinum Award, a global competition recognizing innovative and impactful design.

According to Really Info, a leading real estate data analysis agency in China, Chongqing's central urban area completed 27 residential land auctions in 2023, totaling 2.95 million square meters. This figure shows a reduction from the 4.67 million square meters auctioned in 2022. The successful first land auction of 2024 signals a positive outlook for the balance of land supply and demand in the city, drawing extensive attention.

Statistics of Chongqing's main urban area residential land plots auctioned in 2022 and 2023. (Graphics/Vivian Yan)

The Chongqing real estate market, currently in a destocking phase, observed significant adjustments in 2023, particularly with a notable decrease in residential land supply. The supply in the central urban area and the main urban new district dropped by 60.2% and 38.3%, respectively, compared to the 2022 land supply plan.

China implemented a pilot centralized land supply policy in 2021, active for two years in 22 major cities. The policy aimed to mitigate market overheating and lower market risks by controlling the frequency of land supply releases. In February 2023, an update to this policy removed the limitation of "no more than three land supply instances per year." Experts interpret this as a governmental effort to stabilize the housing market and boost investor confidence.

(Fan Hongyi, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)