Two Chinese developers get support from state-owned entities, as Beijing responds to mortgage-boycott crisis with bailout

Greenland Holdings says it has obtained loans worth 3 billion yuan from two Shanghai government-backed shareholders
China Huarong Asset Management agrees to restructure Yango Longking Group’s debt

China property

Daniel Renin Shanghai

Published: 3:30pm, 8 Aug 2022

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Two Chinese developers have secured support from state-owned shareholders or financial institutions to ease their debt burden, in the latest sign that Beijing is stepping in to bail out China’s embattled property sector.

Greenland Holdings, the largest developer in Shanghai, said on Monday that it had obtained loans worth 3 billion yuan (US$443.6 million) from Shanghai Land (Group) and Shanghai Chengtou, two shareholders backed by the city government, to “ensure its smooth operations”.

Greenland said in a statement that the new funds would help it deliver homes that are currently under construction on time.

The developer’s announcement came after China Huarong Asset Management, the state-owned bad-loan disposal giant, signed an agreement with Yango Longking Group on Friday to restructure its debt. Huarong – one of the key asset managers set up in the late 1990s to help dispose of bad loans at mainland China’s four biggest banks – said the agreement was the result of Beijing seeking the stabilisation of the property market. The central government wants to put the real estate industry back on track, it added.

Shanghai bourse buoys developers after payment delay at Greenland Holdings

“The central government has set the tone for rescuing some key developers and underpinning the property sector,” said Wang Feng, chairman of Shanghai-based financial services company Ye Lang Capital. “But the outlook is still cloudy, because the relief measures do not appear to be enough to bail out all of the country’s developers and housing projects.”

Across the mainland, hundreds of projects have been stuck because of a credit crunch following the introduction of curbs to cool the property market by Beijing, and the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions put in place in major cities such as Shanghai this year.

07:21

Growing anger over China’s unfinished ‘rotten tail’ buildings: ‘We really need this home’

Over the past few weeks, buyers at more than 320 housing projects in 95 cities have collectively refused to make mortgage payments unless construction on their homes resumes, according to real-time updates on “WeNeedHome” on GitHub, Microsoft’s collaborative code-sharing platform, which is commonly used to avoid censorship in China.

The homebuyers’ reluctance to repay mortgage loans is seen as a threat to mainland China’s social order, which has prompted governments at all levels to step in and work out solutions to tackle the debt issues facing developers.

At least a fifth of rated Chinese property developers will end up becoming insolvent, putting investors holding as much as US$88 billion of bonds at risk, S&P Global Ratings said in July.

China’s new home prices fell in July as mortgage-boycott crisis hit sentiment

China Aoyuan Group, another crisis-hit developer based in Guangzhou, capital of the southern Guangdong province, said on Friday that it too was negotiating with creditors about restructuring its debt to minimise any adverse impact on projects under construction.

China Times reported last weekend that Zhengzhou, the capital of China’s central Henan province, would set up a 10 billion yuan relief fund to support the real estate sector. The fund is aimed at tackling social and financial problems arising from unfinished projects.

Late in July, distressed debt media REDD said the State Council, China’s cabinet, planned to set up a relief fund worth 80 billion yuan to buy unfinished projects and complete construction, before they are rented out to individuals as part of a government drive to boost rental housing. China has not confirmed this move.

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