SHANGHAI - China Vanke, the country's largest property developer, said its sales growth slowed sharply in March as real estate transactions cooled after the government stepped up fights against speculative investments, Reuters reported Thursday.

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Sales grew 47.8 percent in March from a year earlier to 9.33 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), compared to more than 100 percent growth it recorded in the first two months of the year, the report said.

For the first quarter, property sales grew 135.3 percent from the same period in 2010, the company said.