(Yicai Global) Feb. 10 -- JD.com’s newly formed property developer unit has won the bidding for a parcel of land adjacent to the Chinese express delivery firm’s headquarters in Beijing for the price of CNY3.1 billion (USD460 million).

Beijing Yuexin Real Estate Development, which was set up in December last year with a registered capital of CNY3.3 billion, bought a seven-hectare plot of land in Yizhuang district in the southeast of the capital city this week, the Beijing government said.

The plot is next to the 45,000-square-meter land parcel that JD.com purchased in January 2012 for CNY295 million (USD43.5 million) to build its headquarters. The new HQ opened in August 2015.

Tech firms buying land shows the strong investment ability of these companies and indicates that they are confident about the land market in Beijing, Yan Yuejin, head of research at think tank Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute, told Yicai Global.

The workforce at these firms is young and highly paid, looking to buy their own homes, Yan said. Many want to avoid long commutes and live close to their workplace. If companies build housing on the land plots they purchase, they can sell the properties to their employees at a discounted price.

A staff member of JD.com told Yicai Global that they have not been notified of any staff housing plans.

Other tech giants such as Bilibili, Meituan, ByteDance Technology and Kuaishou have all invested huge sums in land in recent years. Shanghai-based Bilibili spent over CNY8 billion (USD1.2 billion) in 2021, and TikTok operator ByteDance splashed out CNY7.7 billion buying land in cities including Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing between 2020 and 2021.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor