In more than a month, Suzhou, Hefei, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other first and second-tier cites witnessed an ongoing surge in premium land costs.

In response to a surge of "land kings " in these cities, Sheng Laiyun, a spokesperson from the China's National Bureau of Statistics (CNBS) said that overall, China has seen relative cautionary behavior within property investment, displaying no extremely overheated phenomenon. Some "land kings" have a "demonstration effect" on the price of local properties, which deserves much attention, Sheng added.

The Chinese expression "land kings" is used to describe developers willing to engage in high gearing to secure land banks.

Sheng's argument that Chinese developers make relatively cautious investments in property is based on the growth rate of China's property development investment, the area of land acquired by developers and also by transaction prices of land during auctions.

The data released by CNBS show that China's property development investment from January to May has dipped 0.2 points when compared with that from the period between January to April, 2016; the area of land acquired by developers between January to May in 2016 indicates a 5.9 percent year on year decrease; transaction prices for land between January to May 2016 indicates a year-on-year growth of 4.7 percent, which is lower than the growth in property investment.