Real estate developers’ sales drop

Real estate investment in China slowed in the first two months of this year as property sales declined in the same period, official data showed on Thursday, the latest sign of a slowdown in the country's housing market.

Property investment grew 19.3 percent year-on-year in the first two months of the year, which is 0.5 percentage points slower than the annual growth in 2013, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Thursday.

Sales of properties including residential homes, offices and commercial premises fell 0.1 percent year-on-year in terms of floor space in the period and declined 3.7 percent in terms of value, the data showed.

Meanwhile, Beijing-based Securities Daily reported Thursday that 30 real estate developers saw a sharp decline of sales in February from January.

The 30 companies, including major developers such as Poly Real Estate Group and Gemdale Group, reported total sales revenue of 66.5 billion yuan ($10.83 billion) in February, down 39 percent month-on-month, the report said.

Many of the companies have also shown year-on-year drops during the period. Leading developer Poly Real Estate sold 685,900 square meter of apartments in February, down 24 percent month-on-month and 24.77 percent year-on-year. Its sales contracted 8.38 percent year-on-year to 7.73 billion yuan, the company said Monday.

Developer Gemdale sold 112,000 square meters of apartments in the month, a drop of 25.33 percent month-on-month and 17.04 percent year-on-year, and the value of the sales dropped 16.67 percent year-on-year to 1.35 billion yuan, according to a company statement on Saturday.

Analysts noted that seasonal factors contributed to the month-on-month decline, such as the Spring Festival holidays in early February for which the country had seven days off. However, the more alarming fact is that many of them have reported deteriorating year-on-year performance.

Tight liquidity and sluggish markets in third- and fourth-tier cities are also reasons behind the year-on-year drop in major developers' performance, analysts said.

In December, 13 cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou raised required down payment amounts for the purchase of second homes. Beijing may also raise the down payment for property purchase, according to media reports.

Besides, oversupply in some third- and fourth-tier cities has also prompted speculation that prices would drop and some consumers have adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

Hong Kong-listed Central China Real Estate, which mainly focuses on lower-tier cities, has seen its sales revenue dropping 11.1 percent in February, to 400 million yuan.

However, analysts said that developers' performance may rebound slightly in March, as the month has been a traditional boom season in the past.