China Vanke Co., the country's largest property developer by market value, said Monday its net profit jumped 46.54 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier.

In an unaudited quarterly result filed to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Monday, Vanke said its net profit totaled 1.126 billion yuan (164.8 million U.S. dollars) in the first three months, up 46.54 percent year on year.

Vanke attributed the strong growth of profit in the first quarter to the low base of the same period of 2009 before the country's moderately easy credit policy bottomed out the housing prices.

Share price of Vanke dropped 1.64 percent to 7.8 yuan on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Monday.

The Chinese government announced in April a series of steps to curb housing speculations and soaring housing prices, including raising mortgage rates and down payment requirements and stopping bank loans to third-home buyers.

China's property prices in 70 major cities rose 11.7 percent in March year on year, compared with 10.7 percent in February.