A ZHEJIANG Province real estate company won a land auction for a plot in Yangpu District, Shanghai, with a bid of 1.26 billion yuan (US$165.4 million) yesterday, more than doubling its starting price of 516 million yuan, Shanghai Morning Post reported today.

Song Weiping, chairman of the winning bidder and Hong Kong-listed Greentown Real Estate Group, said the company is good at developing high-ended apartments, and he is confident about the New Jiangwan City plot although the land cost equaled 12,500 yuan per square meter of to-be built apartments.

Greentown, the biggest developer in Zhejiang, once developed high-ended apartments in Shanghai, but it has been short of land in the city for years, the report said.

Song, who also owns Bebei Greentown, a soccer club in China's top league, said the bidding was mainly among four developers -- Chongqing Longhu, Shanghai Gemdale and Capital Land along with Greentown.

"My baseline price was 1.29 billion yuan," Song said.

However, other developers said the price is too high, and Shanghai Gemdale said its baseline was 1.2 billion yuan, the report said.

The D1 plot in New Jiangwan of northeastern Yangpu covers an area of 59,253.7 square meters and is zoned for residential use. It is surrounded by Zhengcheng Road, Guoxiao Road, Songhu Road and Yinhang Road.