China’s home developers suffer further sales skid to end miserable 2023, as 2024 offers slim hope amid depressed demand
- China’s top 100 developers in terms of sales reported that December transaction value dropped 34.6 per cent year on year
- Full-year sales came in 16.5 per cent below 2022, even though December sales rose 15.7 per cent compared with November
The beginning of a new year means joy and hope for many people, but not for big Chinese developers at the dawn of 2024, after a downward trend in home sales accelerated in December as discounts and easing measures failed to spark demand.
China’s top 100 developers in terms of sales reported that December transaction value dropped 34.6 per cent year on year to 451.3 billion yuan (US$63 billion), according to data released by China Real Estate Information Corporation (CRIC) late Sunday. The same metric declined 29.6 per cent year on year in November.
The sluggish performance brought full-year sales to 5.4 trillion yuan, a 16.5 per cent drop compared with 2022, even though December sales rose 15.7 per cent compared with November. Only 16 out of the 100 top developers reported a sales value of above 100 billion yuan in 2023, four fewer than in 2022.
Underscoring that demand will remain a challenge into 2024, the lacklustre sales figures came despite China’s major developers offering discounts as part of a so-called year-end home purchasing festival in December.
At least eight of the 10 biggest developers offered special discounts last month, with some willing to sell units at the most favourable prices in a year.
Poly Developments and Holdings Group, which ranked first by sales among Chinese developers, in December launched over 100 units with special offers in China’s central Hunan province and southern Fujian province.
