China Vanke targets small Chinese cities as rivals pull out
Top mainland developer wary of high prices in big towns even as it boosts profit to a record
China Vanke, the mainland's largest developer by revenue, will buy land evenly across the nation, in sharp contrast to rivals which are bypassing small cities, company president Yu Liang said yesterday.
The developer reported a 20.5 per cent rise in net profit last year to 15.1 billion yuan (HK$19.1 billion), after contracted sales hit a record 170.9 billion yuan.
Return on equity remained unchanged at a record 19.66 per cent.
Yu said land prices in tier-1 cities were at a high, "against which we need to raise our guard".
"But no one is going to third-tier cities, which we think is an opportunity," he said.
Yu said he was not worried about the housing market in the next 15 years because urbanisation and the relaxation of the one-child policy would drive up demand.