China Vanke Co., the country's largest publicly traded property developer, will seek as much as 5.9 billion yuan ($781 million) in a bond offering, after raising 10 billion yuan selling new shares last week.

The bonds will have maturities of three to seven years, the Shenzhen-based developer said in a statement to the city's stock exchange today, without giving a time frame for the offer. Money raised will be used for working capital and to improve Vanke's debt-to-equity ratio, it said. Vanke earlier this year said it was selling shares to raise funds for residential projects worth 31 billion yuan.

Vanke and rival Gemdale Corp. are among six listed Chinese companies to announce bond sales this month, seeking more than 20 billion yuan between them. China's people are turning to bond and stock markets for greater returns as the country's highest inflation rate in more than 10 years reduces the attraction of bank deposits.

Household savings fell by 22.6 billion yuan last month from a year earlier, according to the central bank.

Vanke last week raised 10 billion yuan selling new shares to fund property projects as rising wages in the world's fastest-growing major economy enable more people to buy homes. The company's shares have more than tripled this year.

Vanke and Poly Real Estate Group Co., China's second- biggest developer by market value, are tapping capital markets after the central bank raised interest rates four times this year to cool inflation, increasing borrowing costs for new developments.

China is building only about 60 percent of the estimated 1 billion square meters a year of new housing needed to keep up with demand, according to China Merchants Securities Co analyst Jia Zuguo.