CHINA'S top 100 property developers sold an average of 5.007 billion yuan (US$705 million) worth of properties in 2007, a year-on-year increase of 65.32 percent, a national real estate research organization announced in Beijing at the weekend.
The annual report, released by China Real Estate Top 10 Research, tracked 500 property developers who either sold more than 300 million yuan worth or 100,000 square meters of property each year between 2005 and 2007 on average.
China Vanke Co, which built 48,000 apartments across the country last year, maintained first place. The Shenzhen-based company sold homes with a total gross floor area of 6.14 million square meters worth 52.36 billion yuan in 2007, up 90.1 percent and 146.6 percent from 2006 respectively.
China Overseas Holdings Ltd and Poly Real Estate Group Co took the second spot, with annual sales of more than 20 billion yuan and 17 billion yuan respectively.
Nationwide, more than 10 real-estate companies achieved sales of more than 10 billion yuan last year, the research has shown.
With booming sales, the country's top 100 real estate developers also witnessed a rapid growth in their total assets in 2007.
Vanke first
By the end of the year, their average total assets hit 11.7 billion yuan, an increase of 3.76 billion yuan since 2006, according to the research.
Vanke has become China's first developer with total assets exceeding 100 billion yuan, followed by China Overseas (between 50 billion and 100 billion yuan), Beijing Capital Development Holding (Group) and Poly Real Estate (both between 40 billion and 50 billion yuan).
In terms of investment, the country's top 100 real estate developers continued to accelerate land acquisitions and property development, the report said. The average investment made by the top 100 companies hit 4.45 billion yuan in 2007, a year-on-year increase of 67.64 percent.
And in terms of revenue gained from their main business, the top 100 firms also secured steady and fast growth. In 2007, revenues from real-estate business reached an average 3.47 billion yuan among the top 100 players, up 48.64 percent from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, their profit-making capability also improved notably over the year. The research showed that 15 property companies secured net profit of more than one billion yuan over the past year, while only five managed to do so in 2006.
Moreover, 2007 was the year in which developers increased their land banks across the country.
The top 100 developers on average acquired land parcels with a total gross floor area of 6.25 million square meters in 2007, a year-on-year increase of nearly 40 percent.
Larger developers also moved into second-tier areas such as Wuhan, Chongqing and Chengdu, the research found. Growth areas included traditional hotspots for residential activity such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Bohai Rim region.
In conclusion, the report found that the top 100 property developers managed to gain a larger slice of the country's real-estate market in 2007, accounting for 16.91 percent of domestic sales, an increase of two percentage points compared to 2006.