The volume and value of land sales in Shanghai rose notably in the first four months of this year after commodity housing plots more than doubled, according to a latest industry report.

Between January and April, 3.6 million square meters of land parcels, including those designated for affordable housing purposes, were sold in the city, up 24.6 percent year on year.

They were sold for 57.32 billion yuan (US$9.2 billion), an annual surge of 75 percent, Soufun.com, operator of the country's largest real estate website, said in a research released yesterday.

"By land purpose, sales of land for commodity housing development more than doubled in the first four months while those designated for affordable housing and commercial purposes remained rather flat from the same period a year earlier," said Li Zongzhou, a Soufun analyst.

"However, sentiment in the local land market, particularly in the commercial segment, has eased quite significantly month by month since the beginning of this year."

In the January-April period, 1.89 million square meters of land designated for commodity housing were bought, up from 820,000 square meters a year ago, while 958,000 square meters were bought for affordable housing, down from 1.12 million square meters, and 758,000 square meters of land were bought for commercial purposes, down from 946,000 square meters.

The market sees the cooling trend to continue for at least one more month, as new land supply in May will fall sharply to 95,000 square meters on four plots, excluding those designated for affordable housing.