China’s top three developers see sales slow in first quarter
Country Garden, Evergrande and Vanke head up list of top 100 developers, says leading research agency, with total Q1 sales rising 29pc to 1.95 trillion yuan
China’s “big three” developers continued to dominate the country’s home sales in the first quarter, according to a leading industry ranking.
But their sales momentum slowed considerably, with each enjoying mixed fortunes compared with the same time last year.
Country Garden, China’s largest developer in terms of 2017 sales value, continued to lead the market, according to China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC) – a Shanghai-based marketing and research agency – with 187.8 billion yuan (US$29.9) worth in the first three months, a 29.3 per cent rise on a year ago.
China Evergrande Group ranked second with 161.8 billion yuan in sales, 51.4 per cent more than a year ago and the fastest growing of the three. While China Vanke ranking third, with its sales worth 152 billion yuan, growing just 1.6 per cent on-year, compared with a 98.9 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2017.
Looking broader at the top 100 Chinese developers, CRIC said sales growth across the board grew by 28.8 per cent over a year earlier, totalling 1.95 trillion yuan, compared with a 45.1 per cent growth recorded in the first two months.
“Most developers in the ranking realised less than 20 per cent of their whole-year sale targets in the first quarter,” said a commentary explaining the findings, “because they extensively rolled out projects in the final quarter, 2017, to hit annual targets, which reduced saleable numbers this quarter.