Sales of China's top 10 property developers totaled 332.3 billion yuan ($49.41 billion) in the first half of 2011, up 80 percent year-on-year, the China Securities Journal reported Monday, citing a report of the China Real Estate Information Corporation.

Related readings:  Property market is strong: Portman  Making a beeline for the suburbs  Property firms fined for irregular price markings  Property firms come under price pressure

The report said China Vanke outperformed its peers, with its sales reaching 64.42 billion yuan in the first six months of this year. Evergrande Property came in second, with sales of 42.9 billion yuan for the same period, followed by China Overseas Property with 42.1 billion yuan.

"The sales surge comes after we adapted our marketing strategy to the policy switches and market situations, helping us to seize the market share of some small rivals," said Xia Haijun, CEO of Evergrande.

With the government's tightening property controls in first-tier cities, developers are turning to second- and third-tier cities that have easier policies, which contributes to the increased sales figures of these property giants, the paper said.