A total of 13 land parcels in Beijing valued at 10.7 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) were sold on Thursday, with the premium price dropping compared with the end of last year, real estate Web portal Soufun reported on Friday.

Thirty-three real estate companies competed for the land parcels. The highest price premium was 50 percent, much lower than the record of 400 percent recorded at the end of 2012, according to the report.

According to Zhang Dawei, head of Centaline's research department, property developers are eager to increase their land banks due to their improved cash flow after strong sales last year.

However, as the government has launched more land parcels into the market, the competition was not so fierce compared with the end of the year, effectively curbing the land price increase.

Beijing launched 44 land parcels into the market in the first two months of 2013, an increase of 41 year-on-year, according to Soufun’s report.