CHINA Vanke Co, the nation's largest real estate developer by market value, yesterday said net profit in the first quarter rose 46 percent to 1.13 billion yuan (US$165 million) while revenue fell 8 percent to 7.5 billion yuan.

Between January and March, Vanke sold more than 1.24 million square meters of new houses across the country, down 18.5 percent from the same period a year earlier, the Shenzhen-based developer said in a statement filed yesterday to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Sales of new homes reached nearly 15.1 billion yuan in the quarter, up 23.5 percent year on year.

Among that, 56 percent of homes sold in the first three months were apartments smaller than 90 square meters, the company said, as it remains committed to the demand of end-users.

Across the country, the company registered fewer home sales by both volume and value in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Rim regions but recorded robust sales in central and western parts of China.

"Vanke's focus on small-sized apartments will make the company less vulnerable to a changing market dynamic brought by a series of policies introduced over the past few months by the central government to rein in property speculation," Su Xuejing, chief real estate analyst with Changjiang Securities, wrote in a report published yesterday. "The company has also paid more attention to cut risks in terms of both capital flow and inventory as compared to its domestic counterparts."

Since late last year, China has launched measures to cool off the housing market.