Residential land prices up 2.26% in 2012

BEIJING - Average residential land prices in China rose 2.26 percent year on year to reach 4,620 yuan ($733.33) per square meter in 2012, the Ministry of Land and Resources said Tuesday.

The growth rate was slower than the 3.34-percent increase in commercial land prices and the 2.7-percent rise in industrial land prices in 2012, according to a statement on the ministry's website.

The statement said China's average land price stood at 3,129 yuan per square meter in 2012, almost unchanged from one year earlier, partly due to a three-year campaign by the government to control property price levels amid widespread complaints about high housing costs.

"Urban land prices will rise steadily in the first quarter of the year, buoyed by an upturn in property investment and sales as well as domestic economic recovery," said Zhao Song, director of the land price division of the China Land Surveying and Planning Institute.

Data released earlier this week showed that the country's land sales totaled 2.69 trillion yuan last year, down from 3.15 trillion yuan in 2011 and flat from 2.7 trillion yuan in 2010.

The government has introduced a slew of measures in recent years, such as third-home purchase limits and property tax trials, to bring home prices down to a reasonable level and prevent social unrest.