BEIJING - China's efforts to cool down its overheated property market have seemed to discourage developers in 130 cities across the country, leading to a 9-percent year-on-year decline in land sales for residential housing development in the first half of 2011, the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) said on Friday.

Local governments in 130 cities registered sales of 11,674 properties between January and June, of which 3,492 properties were used for residential housing development, according to the MLR.

Land prices fell sharply in first-tier cities, with Beijing and Shanghai seeing residential land sales plummet by 84 percent and 44 percent, respectively.

The government said in May that it would increase supplies of available land for residential housing development this year as part of the country's efforts to curb its runaway property market.

China plans to make 218,000 hectares of land available for housing development in 2011, nearly double the amount available during the previous two years, according to MLR.

The government previously vowed to dedicate 70 percent of its residential land to the development of subsidized public housing apartments and small- and medium-sized homes. These projects are expected to create 10 million affordable homes this year.

China adopted a series of tightening measures earlier this year, including raising minimum down payments for second-home purchases, limiting purchases of new homes and introducing property taxes in the cities of Shanghai and Chongqing, in order to keep housing prices down.