China Resources Land reports slowest sales growth since 2015 amid housing slump while rental assets mitigate slowdown
- State-controlled developer posts a 2 per cent growth in sales last year, the slowest since 2015
- Stock jumps 1 per cent in Hong Kong as the broader market rebounds from a seven-day slide
The firm sold 307 billion yuan (US$42.7 billion) worth of homes last year, a 2 per cent annual increase, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Thursday. Sales in December slumped 58 per cent to 21 billion yuan from a year ago, it said.
The east China region was the biggest contributor to sales last year with 87.6 billion yuan, or about a 29 per cent share, it said, while north China provided 52.1 billion yuan and the west China region at 41.96 billion yuan. In Hong Kong, the developer had 3.9 billion yuan worth of sales, the filing showed. The company did not provide comparative 2022 data.
“The real estate industry, having experienced scalable and rapid development characterised by high debt, high leverage, and high turnover in the past, has undergone significant changes in market supply and demand dynamics,” chairman Li Xin said in the filing. This resulted in diverging sales performances across cities and varied customer behaviour, posing new challenges to the industry, he added.
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The company’s shares closed 1 per cent higher at HK$26.05 in Hong Kong, while the broader market halted a seven-day slump. China Resources commands about 0.9 per cent weight in the Hang Seng Index, the third largest property member after Sun Hung Kai Properties and Link Reit.
