China’s real estate sector has demonstrated significant progress in delivering homes on schedule during the first half of the year. This achievement highlights the effectiveness of recent policy support aimed at stabilizing and correcting the sector. According to reports, the top 10 developers successfully delivered 700,000 homes, reflecting the sector’s resilience amid ongoing adjustments.
Financial statements from listed real estate companies reveal that 15 developers each delivered over 20,000 homes in the first half of the year. Notably, eight of these companies surpassed the milestone of delivering 50,000 homes. This robust performance underscores the impact of supportive policies on the sector.
Country Garden, a major developer based in Guangdong Province, reported the delivery of 154,500 homes across 178 cities in 29 provinces during the first six months. The company emphasized its commitment to prioritizing home deliveries as part of its operational strategy.
Yan Yuejin, research director at Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, noted that the progress in home deliveries demonstrates the effectiveness of financial and policy support provided to developers. Despite some challenges, such as difficulties for certain developers to gain inclusion on the support “white list,” the mechanism has garnered attention from local governments and developers, facilitating better support for the sector.
The issue of home delivery delays emerged in the latter half of 2022 as many developers faced financial struggles. In response, the government introduced various policy measures and financial safeguards to assist developers in completing projects.
Starting in January, China implemented city-level real estate financing coordination mechanisms across 297 cities. This initiative aimed to enhance the efficiency of the support mechanism for real estate enterprises. By May, the total approved loans under this mechanism reached 935 billion yuan ($128.79 billion), according to data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration.
The improved delivery performance has enabled developers to resume previously suspended projects and set them on a path to steady recovery. This progress has also positively impacted market confidence. In the first half of the year, several major cities eased property purchase restrictions, and the government introduced measures to support the market, including lowering down payment requirements and reducing housing loan interest rates.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show signs of improvement, with the decline in new residential building prices in first-tier cities slowing in June. The month-on-month decrease was 0.5 percent, down from a 0.7 percent drop in the previous month.
Despite these positive developments, experts believe that further supportive policies are necessary to ensure the sector’s continued healthy growth in the second half of the year. Yan Yuejin pointed out that the Chinese property market is still in the process of clearing excess inventory.
A State Council executive meeting on June 7 emphasized the need to fully recognize the evolving supply-and-demand dynamics in the property sector. The meeting called for effective implementation of existing policies and ongoing exploration of new strategies to stabilize the market and reduce inventory levels.
