Chinese property developers Country Garden, China Overseas Land & Investment and Sunac China ranked top three in terms of home delivery in 2024, delivering 380,000, 182,700, and 170,100 housing units, respectively, according to a report released by EH Consulting.
Country Garden consecutively topped the industry in sales from 2017 to 2022, with a staggering 758.8 billion yuan in sales in 2021 before it slipped into a liquidity crisis in mid-2023. Even in 2023, Country Garden delivered 600,000 units, still ranking first, followed by China Vanke and Sunac China, delivering 318,000 and 310,000 units, respectively.
Country Garden set home delivery targets of 700,000 and 480,000 units for 2023 and 2024, respectively. Although neither target was met, it annual delivery volume over the past two years nearly equaled the combined totals of the second- and third-ranked developers.
At a meeting on January 6 this year, Country Garden’s management noted that the delivery target in 2025 is significantly lower than in 2024.
That aligns with the steep drop in home sales following Country Garden’s financial troubles. According to recent rankings by real estate research firm CRIC, the developer’s full-year sales in 2024 plummeted over 70% year-on-year, totaling just 60.5 billion yuan, ranking 16th, less than 10% of its 2021 sales.
At the meeting, Chairwoman Yang Huiyan said that the company’s priorities in 2025 remain ensuring home deliveries and repairing the balance sheet, compared to its 2024 priorities of ensuring home deliveries, operations and credit.
Repairing the balance sheet involves steps to adjust the asset-liability structure and improve financial health and for developers, it typically includes asset sales and debt reduction.
The meeting also stressed stepping up the efforts in asset disposals, leveraging the Spring Festival sales peak in third- and fourth-tier cities, and exploring opportunities to monetize assets effectively.
Its latest asset disposal occured at the end of 2024. On December 27, Country Garden announced the sale of a 1.56% stake in Changxin Technology for 2 billion yuan, with the proceeds intended for general operational use, primarily funding delivery projects.
According to Yang, since 2022, Country Garden has disposed of hard-to-sell assets and unlocked over 60 billion yuan in funds.
On debt reduction, the company completed extensions on nine domestic bonds totaling about 14.7 billion yuan as early as September 2023, however, it has made limited progress on restructuring its$9.3 billion offshore bonds.
In a December 31 announcement, the company revealed that a draft plan for the restructuring is under revision based on stakeholder feedback. Negotiations with major creditor groups are ongoing.