Land acquisitions almost quadrupled in Shanghai in August as real estate developers expanded their land banks in a little less overheated market.

A total of 24 parcels, covering 1.2 million square meters, were sold in the city last month, compared with nine plots, covering 320,000 square meters, in July, according to property information portal Soufun.com.

"The central government's rein-in policies since mid-April have been affecting not only the housing market, but the land market as well," said Jenny Wu, director of residential for east China operations at DTZ, an international real estate information services provider.

"More land pieces are now offered at comparatively reasonable prices, and that helped trigger buyers' interest. Land reserves are of critical importance to developers' sustainable growth."

A nationwide housing boom since early 2009 has cut developers' inventories of homes and land plots.

In the meantime, ever-climbing land prices, a result of ever-soaring home prices, forced many real estate developers to sit on the sidelines during land auctions, industry analysts said.

In terms of price, seven of the 24 plots were traded at asking prices, a situation rarely seen during the boom times when most land parcels were auctioned at record high levels, Soufun analysts said.

Last month also witnessed a notable rebound in land supply, an effort made by the local government to further cool the housing market.

In August, a total of 43 parcels, covering 2.337 million square meters - of which 1.31 million square meters were designated for housing development, were released to the local market, Soufun research showed. That compared with 664,000 square meters in July.

Under a government plan released earlier, land pieces totaling 5 million square meters should be released in Shanghai during the third quarter.