Chinese developer Longfor Group Holdings has posted a profit gain of 20 per cent for last year, managing to weather a crisis in China’s property industry triggered by defaults among some of its heavily indebted peers. Chongqing-based Longfor said its core profit reached 22.44 billion yuan (US$3.52 billion), up by a fifth from 2020. The annual increase was the same as in the previous year. “We did not buy much land last year and only got a couple of plots at reserve prices at the end of the year,” said Chen Xuping, chief executive officer of Longfor. “We will continue to plan our spending based on what we have and our calculation of the profit, although we are seeing a loosening credit environment towards real estate companies.” Thanks to its constrained borrowing and conservative expansion, Longfor, mainland China’s 12th biggest property company by sales last year, is in rude financial health compared to rivals such as Evergrande and Kaisa Group, who have been crippled by enormous debts. The home builder carries 14.5 billion yuan of debt due within a year and has 88.55 billion yuan of cash on hand. “Besides the borrowings maturing this year, we will repay another 30 billion yuan debt in advance this year to keep the debt level reasonable and safe,” said Zhao Yi, chief financial officer of Longfor. “We believe that the toughest time has passed.” The developer notched up contracted sales of 290 billion yuan in 2021 and is targeting 300 billion yuan this year. The c racks in China’s housing market have widened as more developers joined the list of defaulters, the latest being Logan Group and Sunac China Group Holdings. Cash-strapped Sunac, Evergrande, Shimao Group Holdings, Ronshine China Holdings and Kaisa Group have all said they would not be able to meet the financial reporting deadline for 2021, citing disruption to the audit process caused by Covid-19 and drastic changes in China’s real estate landscape. “We believe that Longfor is one of the key beneficiaries of the rapid consolidation of the property market because of its strong balance sheet and credit ratings,” said Raymond Cheng, property analyst at CGS-CIMB Securities. The company will deliver a final dividend of 1.23 yuan per share, 0.2 yuan higher than last year’s.