Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Ltd reportedly acquired land in Huangpu, Shanghai for a price tag of CNY5.95 billion or HK$7.59 billion. The company is a real estate unit of China's state-owned Greenland Group. The site, which is designed for mixed-use development, was acquired by Greenland Hong Kong's unit TrueThrive Investment.

According to a South China Morning Post report, the amount paid for the acquisition is the second-largest paid for a site in the city for 2013 as far as lump sum payment is concerned. The site has an area of 64,980 square meters. It has the capacity to provide an estimated floor area of 246,000 square meters with an accommodation value pegged at CNY24,236 per square meter. In September, Sun Hung Kai Properties acquired a mixed-use development in Xuijiahui district for a price tag of CNY21.77 billion, which represented the biggest amount paid for Shanghai land for 2013, the report said.

Quoting a company spokesman, the report said the acquisition was part of the firm's plan to add to its land bank in the mainland. InvestorWords defines land bank as land that is purchased and held for future development. In August, Greenland Group went through a back-door process to obtain its listing in Hong Kong. The firm acquired a 60% stake of SPG Land's enlarged issued share capital and renamed the firm to Greenland Hong Kong.

In a statement fiked with the domestic stock exchange early last month, Greenland Hong Kong said it had already paid CNY952 million to its parent company Greenland Group to get a 55% stake in Greenland Real Estate, the report said. Greenland Real Estate, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Greenland Group, has projects located in Kunming, in the province of Yunnan.

Citing data from research company China Real Estate Information Corp, the report said developers have been busy with their land purchases this year. The survey showed that value of total land sales from 1,112 sites in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen increased 181.72% for the first 11 months of this year compared with the same period the previous year.