THREE land plots in Shanghai's Jiading and Xuhui districts fetched a combined 2.4 billion yuan (US$391 million) today as developers' fight for land continued to intensify amid continuously improving sentiment among buyers.

Two land parcels in Jiading, both designated for residential development, garnered great interest from the public with more than 10 real estate developers participating in each of the biddings.

In the competition for a 36,574-square-meter parcel in Malu, Anhui Expressway Holding Group Co became the final winner after it agreed to pay a price of 1.15 billion yuan, beating 18 rivals.

Average gross floor area price for the parcel stood at 12,600 yuan a square meter. That represented a premium of 110 percent, or the highest registered in the city so far this year for a housing plot.

Shanghai-listed Greattown Holdings Ltd, which joined forces with a trading company in today's bidding for a 38,819-square-meter parcel in Anting, beat more than 10 competitors including Shanghai Greenland with a price of 712 million yuan, or 8,341 yuan per square meter, a premium of 85 percent.

"Shanghai saw quite a hot land market in July with eight residential parcels offering a combined gross floor area of more than 1.2 million square meters being released, the highest volume registered for a month so far this year," said Lu Qilin, a researcher with Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co. "We expect the robust sentiment to extend through the rest months of the year as no signal for further tightening can be felt for now."

In July, 13 land parcels, excluding those designated for public uses, were sold across the city for 18.14 billion yuan, a decrease of eight from June but only a month-on-month dip of 6.9 percent in value, Deovolente data showed.

Also today, China Nanyang Co acquired a 11,932-square-meter retail/office parcel in Xuhui for 535.7 million yuan, or 0.77 percent up from its starting price.