BEIJING - Land sales in 130 major Chinese cities dropped 13 percent year-on-year in 2011, as property market curbs continued to bite the realty industry, according to the China Index Academy.

Land premiums, which are major sources of financial revenues for local governments, reached 1.86 trillion yuan ($295.2 billion) in 130 Chinese cities last year, the private real estate research agency said in a report on Monday.

Huang Yu, the academy's vice president, attributed the declines in land sales to squeezed liquidity conditions of developers and a cooling market in the midst of the government's strict tightening measures, including prohibiting purchases of third homes and raising down payment requirements.

"The land market now enters its ice age, with prevalent slumps in both sales volume and prices," Huang said.

Shanghai, China's financial hub and the biggest city, topped the land sales by value among all cities, collecting 126 billion yuan ($20 billion) in land sale revenue, down 16.7 percent year-on-year.

The nation's capital city of Beijing, which sold 164.03 billion yuan of lands in 2010, fetched 101.93 billion yuan in land premiums last year.

The city of Kunming, capital city of southwestern Yunnan province, bucked the trend with its land sales rocketing by 147.6 percent from previous year to 55.75 billion yuan in 2011, according to the academy.