China Overseas Land and Investment has lifted its full-year property sales target by a quarter to HK$100 billion, despite believing that the industry's tough times are not yet behind it.
Kong Qingping (pictured), chairman of the mainland's largest developer by market value, said at a media conference yesterday on the company's interim results that China Overseas Land achieved a record high of HK$65.15 billion in property sales in the first half of this year, an increase of 24.7 per cent from the year-earlier half. The figure equates to more than 81 per cent of the company's original full-year forecast of HK$80 billion, which it has since revised upward to HK$100 billion.
Because the mainland needs to maintain growth amid an uncertain global economic outlook, Kong expects Beijing to implement measures, such as cutting interest rates, to boost market liquidity.
'But there won't be significant changes on the government's control over this [property] industry and the government has repeatedly said it will maintain its measures [to control prices],' the chairman said.
'The market still faces a lot of challenges ahead and the toughest period is not over yet.'
Kong said stable home prices of about 5,800 yuan (HL$7.100) to 5,900 yuan per square metre on average in the last seven months showed the effectiveness of the housing measures, and he expected prices to remain steady in the second half.
But he said some tightening measures might be replaced by certain long-term policies such wider application of a tax on second-home buyers introduced early last year in Shanghai and Chongqing.
