SHANGHAI'S land sales more than doubled in value in the first quarter from a year earlier amid recovering sentiment in the property market, according to an industry research.

Between January and March, 1.49 million square meters of land, excluding those for public use, were sold for 18.58 billion yuan (US$2.96 billion) in the city, an annual jump of 55.8 percent and 172 percent, respectively, Soufun.com, China's largest real estate website operator, said in a report.

But on a quarterly basis, they shed 63 percent in volume and 65.2 percent in value.

The sales of land for housing, excluding government-funded affordable homes, totaled 566,800 square meters in the three months, or 6.93 billion yuan in value, Soufun said.

The residential parcels were sold for 30.4 percent higher on average than their asking prices, up from 15.1 percent and 22.3 percent in the third and fourth quarters of 2012.

"Robust home sales since the second half of last year have boosted real estate developers' prospects for the market and therefore triggered their appetite for land bank expansion," said Zhang Wanyu, an analyst at Soufun.