China’s government netted 1.6 trillion yuan ($234 billion) from land sales last year, or 40% of the cost of the nation’s two-year stimulus package.

The figures, released this week by the Ministry of Land and Resources, showed state land sales rising to a record, helping to fund the 4 trillion-yuan plan.

The risk for this year may be that real-estate sales and prices drop because of government efforts to cool the market, cutting into one of the main sources of revenue for the nation’s 31 provinces. Former Morgan Stanley chief Asian economist Andy Xie and Kynikos Associates Ltd. founder James Chanos have warned that the nation has a real-estate bubble that may burst.

bloomberg.com