Shimao Property Holdings will cut its construction area by more than two million square metres in cities facing home-purchase restrictions and increase sales volume to offset a sluggish market.
The company made the announcement after reporting that underlying interim profit rose 39 per cent. Excluding revaluation gains on investment properties, core earnings were 2.27 billion yuan (HK$2.77 billion), up from 1.63 billion yuan a year earlier.
Turnover increased 21 per cent to 12.17 billion yuan, and the company declared an interim dividend of 22 HK cents, up 46.66 per cent from a year earlier.
Jason Hui Sai-tan, Shimao Property vice-president, said properties under development would be reduced to 7.7 million square metres by the end of the year, down from an original target of 10 million square metres.
'We will adopt a standardised approach to ensure developments are built faster and sold faster,' he said.
This included a more efficient development process, he said. The company planned to slash the time between securing a site and putting a project on the market for pre-sale to five months from nine months to a year at present, he said.