China’s ‘two sessions’ 2023: property tycoons including Evergrande’s Hui Ka-yan may get to plead for friendlier policies in Beijing

Name: The ‘two sessions’ – China’s most important political meetings of the year
Uploaded: 2023-03-04T01:30:12.000Z
Duration: 4 min 30 s
Description: The ‘two sessions’ – China’s most important political meetings of the year

Their pledges to arrange repayment of their debts, and their appeals for more help are likely to be major focal points of the meetings

The tycoon delegates will also look for clues as to whether the central bank will maintain its tight cap on borrowings

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Hui Wing-mau, chairman and executive director of Shimao Property Holdings, will attend the ‘two sessions’. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Pearl Liu

Published: 9:30am, 4 Mar 2023Updated: 10:43am, 14 Mar 2023

Some of China’s biggest real estate moguls, saddled with billions of dollars of unpaid debts, may get the chance to plead for breathing space and friendlier property policies in the Great Hall of the People this weekend.

Twelve of the 5,138 delegates attending the annual “two sessions” in Beijing are real estate developers, owning or heading property companies carrying nearly 1.6 trillion yuan (US$232 billion) of short-and-long borrowings between them.

And 10 of them have officially defaulted on their debts as the ravaged sector veered from crisis to crisis in the past two years.

Their pledges to arrange repayment of the huge amounts they owe to prevent more cracks appearing in China’s housing market, and their appeals for more help are likely to be major focal points of the meetings.

“Other than sorting out plans to get the creditors’ approvals, there is not much they can do to boost sales, which is the key to restarting a normal business operation,” said Yan Yuejin, director of Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institute.

04:30

The ‘two sessions’ – China’s most important political meetings of the year

“They are waiting for more relaxing measures and the national meeting could be a good chance to plead for that.”