The prices of land designated for housing development more than doubled in Shanghai this year due to strong optimism among real estate developers.

A total of 78 land plots for home use, with a combined developable area of 9.09 million square meters, were sold via bidding in the city between January and December, harvesting about 65.7 billion yuan (US$9.62 billion) for the local government, E-House (China) Holdings Ltd said in a report released over the weekend.

That meant an average price of 7,230 yuan per square meter, a sharp rise from 3,393 yuan per square meter in 2008.

At the same time, sales of land for all purposes, such as residential, commercial and industrial uses, are expected to soar to 99.2 billion yuan this year, a rise of 148 percent from 2008 and 106 percent from 2007, according to E-House data.

"This is a record sales (by value) after the city introduced the bidding scheme for land acquisitions in August 2004," said Xue Jianxiong, an analyst with E-House, the country's largest integrated real estate services provider. "The rather small land supply in the market played a major role behind the skyrocketing prices of both land and homes."

While 18.3 million square meters of new home sales may be sealed in Shanghai by the end of the year, land acquisitions for housing purposes only stood at about 9.09 million square meters, according to E-House data.

Just a week ago, a wholly owned subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corp acquired a 114,500 square meter land plot in New Jiangwan Town in the city's northeastern Yangpu District for 3.72 billion yuan, or 32,484 yuan per square meter, beating market expectations and setting the highest price record for housing land on China's mainland.