A first-half home-buying spree in China lifted the top 10 developers' sales by 44 percent year-on-year to 490 billion yuan ($79.8 billion) and expanded their market share, confounding bearish expectations, a report by the China Index Academy said.

The academy is a research institute attached to the country's largest real estate website, SouFun Holding Ltd.

According to SouFun, China Vanke Co Ltd took the lead. Public information shows Vanke sold 7.16 million sq m of properties, up 18.9 percent. These robust sales propelled its revenue to 83.67 billion yuan, up 33.79 percent.