BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- China Vanke, the country's largest property developer by market value, said Sunday that it raked in anet profit of 2.96 billion yuan (433.38 million U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters of this year, up 29.9 percent year on year.

    The company's business revenue in the first three quarters surged 31.1 percent year on year to 29.54 billion yuan, it said in the quarterly report to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

    The Shenzhen-based company sold 5.1 million square meters of housing nationwide during the January-September period, up 26.8 percent over the same period last year in terms of total sales space.

    The company's housing sales totaled 5.57 million square meters for the whole of 2008, down 9.2 percent year on year amid a stagnant property market. Its net profit declined 16.7 percent in 2008 from the previous year.

    China's property market has seen price and sale hikes after February this year boosted by rising demand.

    In the third quarter, the company posted a net profit of 430 million yuan, more than doubled compared with the same period last year.