In recent years, the price of industrial and commercial land in China has shown a continuous upward trend. In this context, an important question is whether the good news of rising land value can be recognized by investors and how it will affect the equity financing behavior of companies. This paper empirically tests this question using data from 14 305 land transactions between listed firms and local governments from 2006 to 2016. The empirical results show that the higher the land value owned by a listed firm, the greater the probability of increased equity financing in the following year, and the larger the scale of financing. This conclusion remains valid even after addressing the endogenous issues. Secondly, there is a significant negative correlation between land value and the cost of equity capital. Thirdly, investor attention can positively moderate the relationship between land value and equity financing. Furthermore, the group test shows that when the debt level of listed firms is high, land value has a significant positive impact on equity financing. When the debt level is low, land value has no significant impact. Finally, we find that firms with higher land value can adjust to the target capital structure more quickly. The results of this paper imply that changes in the land market can be transmitted to the capital market, affecting the financing behavior of listed firms.