(Yicai) Aug. 2 -- Nearly 60 percent of China’s 100 largest real estate firms did not acquire any land in the seven months ended July 31, indicating that the country’s developers are cautious about investing amid a sluggish market, according to a recent report.

Some CNY11.6 trillion (USD1.6 trillion) worth of land was purchased by developers that are listed in the top 100 from January to July, a dive of 20 percent from the same period last year, according to a report released by market research institute the Kerry Research Center yesterday.

Of this amount, the top 10 accounted for 63 percent, while those in 11th to 20th place made up 15 percent and those ranked 51st to 100th only accounted for 5 percent, the report said.

China Resources Land forked out the most for land over this period at CNY125.3 billion (USD17.4 billion) followed by Binjiang Group with CNY87.5 billion (USD12.2 billion) and Poly Development with CNY86.1 billion.

The pace of land acquisition dropped sharply in July compared with the first six months. Only Poly out of the 10 biggest developers bought more than CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion) worth of land that month and purchases by China Merchants Property Development and Hangzhou, southeastern Zhejiang province-based Binjiang dived more than 60 percent. Longfor Real Estate and China Overseas did not buy any land in July.

Developers are focusing on their layout in the bigger first- and second-tier cities and are not paying much attention to the smaller third- and fourth-tier cities, according to the report. In the first half, the majority of land acquisitions were in fewer than 15 cities. Companies like China Resources and Binjiang made over 90 percent of their investments in first- and second-tier cities.

If the real estate market does not rebound significantly in the third quarter, developers will remain cautious about buying land, the report said. They will focus on cost-effective, prime land in first and second-tier cities. In the short term, state-owned enterprises will continue to dominate the market and private enterprises will recover more slowly.

Editor: Kim Taylor