Commercial property in Huaibei, East China's Anhui province, on June 20, 2016. [Photo/IC]

China's property market sent a bullish signal in the first half of 2016, according to a report by Economic Information Daily.

A total of 21 property companies had released their June financial reports, according to the Centaline Group's property research center.

Their sales in the first half of the year reached 90.7 billion yuan ($13.6 billion), up 74.5 percent from 52 billion yuan for the same period last year. And their sales areas spanned 7837.52 million square meters, rising 53.4 percent year-on-year.

Among them, eight companies had more than doubled their sales, including China Jinmao Holdings Group Ltd, Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd, Sunac China Holdings Ltd, Logan Property Holdings Co Ltd, Times Property Holdings Ltd, Jiangsu Fortune Land Group Co Ltd, China SCE Property Holdings Ltd and Shui On Land Ltd.

Meanwhile, Country Garden raised its full-year sales target to 220 billion yuan, up 31 percent from its original target of 16.8 billion yuan. CIFI Holdings Group Co Ltd has also increased its full-year contract sales target by 20 percent, from 36.5 billion to 43.8 billion yuan.

Centaline Group's chief analyst Zhang Dawei said the hot property market of the first- and second-tier cities had enhanced listed property companies' sales performances in the first half of the year.

"Considering that they achieved satisfying sales in the first half year, many companies may have strong demand for price increase in the last half," Zhang said.

In addition, the growth rate of a hundred cities' housing mean price further expanded in the first half of the year, up 7.61 percent. This included a monthly rise of 1.9 percent in March, as well as a yearly rise of 10 percent in May and 11.18 percent in June, according to a report from the China Index Academy, a property research institute.

China Index Academy says that as property companies seized the destocking opportunity in the first half of the year, amid full-scale real estate policy easing, sales performances in hot-spot cities contributed a lot to overall sales. It says price rises in cities also increased sales.

A total of 115 property companies earned more than 5 billion yuan as of June 30, an increase from 46 last year. And the average sales target completion rate among monitored brand property companies was 60 percent, far beyond that of previous years.

Having been encouraged by the continuously increasing sales and having their finance improved under the loosening financing environment, property companies have sharply increased their debt financing scales at obviously lower financing costs.

The lands bought by a total of 20 large property companies, in the first half of the year, adds up to 48.8 million square meters, costing 226 billion yuan. And companies have shifted their land-buying emphasis to second-tier cities, from first-tier cities.

"As the fast growing period of domestic real estate market is ending and sector competition becomes intensified, the mergers and acquisitions and reorganization cases of property companies are increasing and become the new normal," said China Index Academy.

It says mergers and acquisitions in the property industry would improve competition.