The "mid-year examination" of real estate enterprises: sales rose by more than three percent in June, and most state-owned enterprises contracted their land acquisition

Reporter Wu Jing and Lu Zhikun report from Beijing

In the first half of this year, the national property market policy continued to be optimized and adjusted, and the restrictive policies were relaxed or even canceled one after another.

Recently, a number of market institutions released the list of the top 100 real estate companies in the first half of the year in terms of sales and land investment, compared with the same period last year, the sales of the top 100 real estate companies this year generally declined, and the overall year-on-year decline was nearly 40%. Many state-owned enterprises have also chosen to invest conservatively, and the amount of land acquired has decreased by more than half year-on-year.

Liu Shui, director of enterprise research at the China Index Research Institute, pointed out that the recent implementation of the "5.17" package of real estate policies has a good role in boosting market confidence, but the overall pace of market repair still depends on the improvement of residents' income expectations, and the national new housing market may still be in the bottoming stage in the short term.

He pointed out that in the follow-up in terms of destocking, all localities may speed up the detailed implementation of policies such as the acquisition and storage of unsold new houses by local state-owned enterprises and the acquisition of stock land, so as to help real estate companies speed up the recovery of funds and help the industry resolve risks. It is expected that with the optimization of both supply and demand at the same time, the real estate market will accelerate its stabilization and recovery, and the sales of real estate companies will improve.

Luxury houses drove China Overseas to surpass Vanke in the ranking

According to the sales list of the top 100 real estate companies released by market institutions, in the first half of this year, Poly Development, China Overseas Real Estate and Vanke ranked the top three in full-caliber sales, with 173.3 billion yuan, 148.3 billion yuan and 126.72 billion yuan respectively.

Among them, Poly Development has maintained its position since replacing Country Garden as the top spot in 2023, but compared with 236.6 billion yuan in the same period last year, this year's sales have dropped by nearly three percent due to the overall downturn in the market.

Compared with the same period last year, China Overseas Real Estate surpassed Vanke to win the second place on the list. It is understood that in the first half of this year, a number of high-price projects of China Overseas Real Estate entered the market, driving the company's overall sales to increase rapidly.

For example, in March this year, it opened in Zhonghai Shunchang Jiuli, the core area of Shanghai, achieving a removal rate of 98.5% and sales of 19.65 billion yuan, setting a record for the turnover of a single project in the first half of the year. At the end of June, its Zhonghai Jinghua Jiuxu in Beijing, Zhonghai Lingdi Jiuxu in Shanghai, Zhonghai Shunchang Jiuli & Hengchang Jiuli, and Shenwan Jiuxu in Shenzhen were opened at the same time, with a unit price of up to 298,000 yuan per square meter, and the contract amount of the four projects was about 28.2 billion yuan after the opening. With the hot sales of luxury residential projects, China Overseas Real Estate achieved full-caliber sales of 46.6 billion yuan in a single month in June, ranking first among the top 100 real estate companies in a single month, hitting a new high in the past year.

In addition to the above three real estate companies, the top 10 in the first half of the year also included China Resources Land, China Merchants Shekou, Greentown China, C&D Real Estate, Binjiang Group, Yuexiu Real Estate and Longfor Group. Country Garden's sales plummeted after last year's accident, and in the first half of this year, it fell out of the top 10 on the list. In addition, Yuexiu Real Estate, "China Construction" real estate enterprises such as China Construction Dongfu, China Railway Construction, Xiangyu Real Estate and other state-owned enterprises have improved their rankings, and Yuexiu Real Estate has ranked among the top 10 for the first time.

It is worth noting that as the industry enters a period of adjustment, more and more companies no longer increase sales targets and pursue large-scale development. From the perspective of sales targets, most real estate companies have set relatively conservative sales targets this year, maintaining the average level in recent years. In the first half of the year, a number of typical real estate companies only completed three to four percent. For example, Longfor Group's sales target set this year is 168 billion yuan, and only 51.13 billion yuan will be completed in the first half of the year, and Yuexiu Real Estate's annual sales target will be 147 billion yuan, and only 55.7 billion yuan will be completed in the first half of the year.

Since June, with the successive implementation of the "5.17 New Deal" in first- and second-tier cities, as well as the impact of the mid-year performance of real estate companies, the monthly sales of the top 100 real estate companies have increased significantly. According to data from market agency CRIC, the TOP100 real estate companies achieved sales of 438.93 billion yuan in June, an increase of 36.3% month-on-month.

From the perspective of corporate performance, nearly sixty percent of the top 100 real estate companies achieved month-on-month performance growth in June, and nearly three percent of enterprises such as Poly Development, Greentown China, China Resources Land, Binjiang Group, China Jinmao, Yuexiu Real Estate, China Railway Construction, and Poly Real Estate achieved a year-on-year increase in monthly performance. However, judging from the sales in the past few years, the monthly performance scale of real estate companies in June this year still remained at a historically low level.

In the first half of this year, the property market across the country continued to loosen, but the effect of stimulating the sales side was limited, according to the data of the China Index Research Institute, in the first half of the year, the total sales of the top 100 real estate companies were 2,083.47 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 41.6%.

C&D and China Construction Yipin bucked the trend to take land

Affected by the downturn in sales, real estate companies are becoming more cautious in acquiring land investment. In the first half of the year, only 30% of the top 100 real estate companies took land, and they were mainly the top 30 enterprises in the sales list.

It is worth noting that among the top 100 real estate companies that have acquired land, nearly seventy percent of the enterprises invested in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year. In the first half of the year, Poly Development, the "sales champion", acquired 11.58 billion yuan of land, a year-on-year decrease of 70%; China Overseas Real Estate fell 73%; Vanke's land acquisition was only 2.86 billion yuan, down 94%. In the first half of the year, although the amount of land acquired by Binjiang Group and Yuexiu Real Estate was among the top in the industry, it still fell by 44% and 45% year-on-year.

According to CRIC statistics, in the first half of the year, there were only 5 real estate companies with a land acquisition amount of more than 20 billion yuan, and only 12 enterprises with a land acquisition amount of more than 10 billion yuan, a decrease of 4 and 3 respectively over the same period last year.

The sales ratio of the top 100 real estate companies in January ~ June fell to 0.14, a decrease of 0.01 from January ~ May. In terms of echelons, the more advanced the sales echelon, the more active the investment. The land-to-sales ratio of the top 10 real estate companies is 0.15, which is the highest among all echelons, but the land-to-sales ratio of each echelon is hovering at a low level, and the gap is not large.

At a time when the overall investment of real estate enterprises is shrinking, central state-owned enterprises such as C&D Real Estate, China Construction Yipin, Lianfa, and Guomao are outstanding in the land auction market. From the perspective of new value, according to the statistics of the China Index Research Institute, in the first half of the year, C&D Real Estate, China Resources Land and China Construction Yipin ranked the top three, with the corresponding new value of 60.8 billion yuan, 48.1 billion yuan and 47 billion yuan respectively.

Among them, C&D Real Estate ranked fourth in the same period last year, followed by China Resources Land, Poly Development and China Overseas Real Estate. It is understood that C&D real estate in last year's new value of 218 billion yuan, the management at the beginning of the year had said that this year to control the scale of land, in the first half of the year its land has decreased by 8% year-on-year, but in the case of other state-owned enterprises to take land in the case of a sharp contraction, C&D in the land investment appears to be "outstanding", in June a single month to take the amount of land more than 8 billion yuan.

In addition, the amount of land acquired by China Construction Yipin in the same period last year was only 5.5 billion yuan, and in the first half of this year, it soared to 21.3 billion yuan, and it is understood that its full-caliber sales in the first half of the year were 26.94 billion yuan.

Chen Xingbang, an analyst at the China Index Research Institute, pointed out that in the first half of 2024, the total amount of land acquired by the top 100 enterprises will be 380.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 35.8%, and the decline will continue to expand compared with 1~5 months. In April and May, land auction policies in core cities were frequently issued, and real estate companies were also actively adapting and adjusting their strategies. "On the one hand, for high-quality land plots in advantageous areas, real estate companies are more enthusiastic about investment and more competitive. On the other hand, for land plots that are not cost-effective, real estate companies are more cautious in acquiring land. ”

(Editor: Lu Zhikun Review: Tong Haihua Proofreader: Zhai Jun)