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BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Poly Real Estate Group, one of China's leading real estate companies, reported 38.73 percent year-on-year growth in its first-quarter net profits despite tightening government regulation on the property market.

The Beijing-based company said in a report filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange Saturday that it reaped 1.89 billion yuan (about 270 million U.S. dollars) in net profits in the first three months, but its business revenue dropped 5.14 percent to 17.9 billion yuan. Earnings per share rose to 0.16 yuan from 0.13 yuan a year ago.

Chinese property developers enjoyed a bumper year in 2016 due to strong sales and easing monetary policies, but runaway housing prices have prompted government cooling measures from October last year.

Dozens of cities have implemented tougher cooling measures to limit price gains since mid-March, following Beijing's unprecedentedly strict curbs that lifted the downpayment ratio for second homes to 60 percent.

Poly said that as the government made further strides in market regulation, property markets in cities with tough price curbs would be impacted

Of 70 large and medium-sized cities monitored by the government, 24 witnessed slower price rise year on year in March, up from 20 in February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Shares of the Poly Real Estate Group dropped 1.36 percent to 9.42 yuan on the Shanghai market Friday.