SALES of land parcels designated for residential use and office/retail development have plunged in Shanghai since the beginning of this year as the government's austerity measures imposed on the real estate market remained, according to a research report released yesterday by Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co.

Between January 1 and Wednesday, only one land plot for homes was sold in the city, against 14 pieces posted in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, seven parcels earmarked for office/retail development totaling 273,000 square meters were transacted, an annual plunge of 53.6 percent by area, Deovolente data showed.

"It is apparent that sluggish home sales in major Chinese cities since last year as a result of government austerity measures have put more developers on the sidelines for land bidding," said Lu Qilin, a researcher at Deovolente. "And that's also why we have seen most of the parcels being sold at the asking prices."

Around the city, 75 land plots totaling nearly 3.59 million square meters, the majority of them designated for industrial space development, were sold as of Wednesday this year, an annual drop of 4.6 percent, according to Deovolente research.

A separate research by Centaline Property also found that sales of land parcels set for residential use in 13 major Chinese cities dived 75 percent to 2.2 million square meters in January, the second-lowest monthly volume in two years.