(Yicai) April 3 -- The price of land in several Chinese cities hit an all-time high in the past week as the country's real estate market shows signs of recovery and after local governments removed the cap on bidding, but the overall recovery of land sales still depends on a rebound in the property market, an analyst said.

“Recently, some land plots reached high prices at auction, but they are all prime plots in downtown areas,” Meng Xinxin, an analyst at the China Index Academy, told Yicai. “Overall, the land market is becoming more differentiated, and the recovery of the market still relies on an uptick in property sales.”

The price of a plot of land in Suzhou, eastern Jiangsu province set a new record on March 27 when bidding reached CNY65,022 (USD8,986) a square meter. Located in a prime downtown area, it sold at a 18.2 percent premium on the offer price, surging past the previous record of CNY45,455 (USD6,282) per square meter set in the city a few weeks earlier.

Other plots in Ningbo, southeastern Zhejiang province and Xiamen, southeastern Fujian province also recently sold at a high premium, all of which were in good locations, industry insiders said.

Although land in major cities has been selling at around 9 percent above the asking price recently, more than 70 percent of land plots are still selling at their reserve price, according to a recent report released by the research institute CRIC.

Real estate developers are also still cautious about investing in land. More than half of the top 10 real estate firms buying land in the big cities are owned by the central or local governments, according to the China Index Academy. Private companies, including Binjiang Real Estate Group, are more inclined to invest in land in their key markets.

Despite the recent high prices of some plots, land purchases by 30 representative developers slumped 36 percent in March year on year, same as in February, according to CRIC.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor