Empirical examination of land auction price of Beijing land market

The fact that local governments rely heavily on land finance has fostered the emergence of land lease price champion in many cities across the country through land auctions and land auctions are most likely to cause excessive land auction premium. This paper focuses on residential and commercial land lease transactions in Beijing for a period from 2003 to 2010 and studies the driving forces of the observed land auction premium using hedonic pricing methodology. Results show that land use purpose, floor-to-site ratio, location, the type of land bidder and distance to city center significantly impact the land auction premium. Comparing with private real estate companies, state-owned real estate firms exert more impact on land auction premium. Another finding is that part of the stimulus package released in 2009 to cope with the economic crisis has been directed to land market through state-owned real estate firms that pushes up the land prices.