Soho China Ltd, a leading commercial property developer in the country, announced Wednesday its first-half net profit soared 136 times to 1.721 billion yuan (US$253.8 million) amid surging property sales.

Turnover between January and June skyrocketed to 8.655 billion yuan, a growth of 119 times from same period a year earlier, mainly due to a notable increase in area booked, the Beijing-based developer said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Area booked during the period, excluding car parks, jumped to 182,934 square meters from 1,645 square meters in the first six months of 2009, and the average price of booked area climbed an annual 31 percent to 46,837 yuan per square meter.

The company said Sanlitun SOHO, Zhongguancun SOHO, Chaoyangmen SOHO Phase II, SOHO Nexus Centre, The Exchange-SOHO and Beijing SOHO Residences contributed to the turnover.

Contract sales sealed in the first seven months of this year were 13.57 billion yuan, among which Galaxy SOHO, a 334,000-square-meter commercial development in Beijing, contributed 5.96 billion yuan, or the largest share among the projects, said the firm's e-mailed statement.

SOHO China said it expects property sales of about 50 billion yuan in the next three years. For this year, its earlier target of 18 billion yuan remains unchanged.

In Shanghai, SOHO China acquired earlier this month an 86,164-square-meter plot adjacent to the Hongqiao Integrated Transport Hub for about 1.56 billion yuan, or a per gross floor area price of 7,250 yuan per square meter. The Beijing developer first tapped the Shanghai market in August 2009 when it bought a 52-story office tower on Nanjing Road W. from the real estate arm of Morgan Stanley for 2.45 billion yuan.