September 6 -- China Vanke (000002,200002) posted a 12.6 percent year-on-year fall in transaction value in August to 10.48 billion yuan on a five percent drop in transaction area to 960,000 square meters, reports Securities Daily, citing a company filing.

Compared with the previous month, transaction value rose 15.4 percent, while transaction area rose 22.8 percent.

For the first eight months, the largest real estate developer in China recorded a 47.8 percent year-on-year rise in transaction value to 84.57 billion yuan, while transaction area hit 7.33 million square meters, up 50.4 percent.

Board secretary Tan Huajie attributed the year-on-year fall in transaction value to the different pace at which Vanke rolled out its real estate developments. In 2010, Vanke had launched most of its developments in the second half, with August being the peak season.

Tan said the launch of its developments this year was more evenly spread out. Though the number of developments launched in August exceeded that of July, the number was still below that of June.

In addition, of the transactions in August, almost 80 percent were located at second and third-tier cities, leading to a year-on-year fall in the average transaction prices.

The transaction areas of commercial residential properties in 14 cities in August, including Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Chengdu, were half that recorded in the same month of 2009.

Taizhou city in Jiangsu province last month became the first second-tier city to impose tightening policies that place limits on the number of properties that can be purchased by residents.

According to Tan, a possible extension of the tightening policies may not negatively impact Vanke as most of the company's developments are located in cities where such tightening policies are already in place.

China Vanke maintained steady sales due to its focus on small and medium-sized residential properties, and its sales ratio in August was slightly higher than the average recorded in the first half of 2011, said Tan.

Vanke added five developments in Beijing, Taiyuan, Hefei and Xian in August at an average floor price of 2,700 yuan per square meter.

Transaction volume in first-tier cities in the first week of September fell year-on-year, with Shenzhen recording a fall of more than 50 percent, while the drops in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou exceeded more than 30 percent year-on-year.

Shares of China Vanke fell 0.62 percent to trade at 7.98 yuan at 10:32 today.