Embattled China Evergrande Group is offering 2,000 completed homes for sale during the upcoming Labour Day holiday, putting its market credibility to the test after assembling a battery of advisers to overcome its liquidity crisis. The heavily indebted developer , chaired by Hui Ka-yan, will kick off a holiday promotions campaign from April 30 during what is traditionally a golden week for property sales, it announced on Tuesday. It said it would implement 10 “key marketing measures” to boost sales. The group’s office will offer 1,000 units in 10 cities including Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhaoqing, Qingyuan and Shaoguan, according to promotional material. The units represent half of its housing stock in the Pearl River Delta. It said properties on offer will include villas, high-rise apartments, serviced apartments and shops. The festive promotions will apply to some of Evergrande’s 400 projects currently on sale across the nation, said a company spokeswoman, without disclosing further details. “Previously, Evergrande has offered 20 to 30 per cent discounts to boost sale,” said Andy Lee, CEO for southern China at Centaline Property Agency (China). The response to the sales push should provide a gauge of the developer’s credibility with potential buyers, with the group still mired in debt. The developer hasn’t published its accounts since its interim report when its total liabilities ballooned to 1.97 trillion yuan (US$305.6 billion). Since then, the world’s most heavily indebted developer, has hired several financial and legal advisers to deal with creditors’ demands and fend off hostile enforcement actions. It promised last month to roll out a restructuring plan by the end of July, having already defaulted on various bonds in December. It is weighed down by US$22.7 billion in offshore debts, including bonds, private financing loans and project loans. It delayed the release of its 2021 financial results last month because of unfinished auditing work. China’s “three red lines” , measures in place since August 2020 to control systemic risk posed by weak property developers, have sent the industry into a slump not seen since the 2015 stock market crash. Major developers such as Evergrande and Kaisa Group Holdings defaulted on their bonds last year as a result. Beijing has rolled out a number of policies to buoy the sector in recent months. In January, the People’s Bank of China lowered the five-year loan prime rate – a reference rate for mortgages – by a modest 0.05 per cent to 4.6 per cent to reduce the borrowing costs of buying a home. In March, the finance ministry decided not to expand a property tax trial to more cities this year, citing poor market conditions. China’s gross domestic product was hit hard in the first quarter of 2020, shrinking by 6.8 per cent after coronavirus outbreaks triggered a near-nationwide lockdown. Fresh outbreaks are popping up around the country once again and have led to massive lockdowns, such as those in Shanghai, its financial and trade capital. Last month, Premier Li Keqiang confirmed that China had set an economic growth target of “around 5.5 per cent” for 2022 after its economy grew by 8.1 per cent last year. Lee said property sales remained stagnant as the worsening Covid-19 situation that has sent dozens of cities into lockdown battered the economy. Still, the upcoming Labour Day holiday push is likely to be healthier than in recent months after several cities relaxed their curbs to revive the ailing industry, he added. For instance, Shenzhen, the southern technology hub seen as “China’s Silicon Valley”, saw sales of used-homes plunge by 77 per cent to 2,000 deals in March. “But sales in Shenzhen should pick up 30 to 40 per cent next month after banks have lowered mortgage rates and sped up the process of applying for home loans,” said Lee. Separately, China Evergrande issued a notice on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange late on Thursday notifying holders of its 8.2 billion yuan, 7 per cent five-year bond issued in 2021 of a bondholders’ meeting scheduled for April 25 to 26. The meeting is intended to seek bondholders’ consent to postpone the coupon payment date to October 27 “in view of the issuer’s business status”. The payment postponement covers all interests accrued in the 12 months to April 26 this year.