China property market will face prolonged weakness in 2024: Country Garden

China property challenges: China's largest private property developer, Country Garden, foresees a persistent weakness in the property market throughout 2024, anticipating more challenges ahead, according to the company's top management. The firm, which defaulted on $11 billion in offshore bonds in October and extended repayments on onshore notes, is one of several developers grappling with a cash crunch since the mid-2021 debt crisis.

During an annual internal conference on Monday, Chairperson Yang Huiyan noted that the market did not rebound as anticipated in the previous year and is still undergoing corrections, as reported on the company's official Weibo account. President Mo Bin expressed concerns about the challenges ahead, saying that they might be more severe than anticipated, urging a calm response.

Yang expects the property market to remain at a low level in 2024, with diverging outlooks amongst different cities and between state-owned and private companies. The company emphasised that home delivery is a top priority for the year, aiming to deliver 480,000 homes to buyers, a 20 per cent reduction from the 600,000 units delivered in 2023, which was the highest in the country.

To boost margins and cut costs, Yang had previously announced the closure of all side businesses except for contract construction and the construction robot business in March. The company reported that it has commercialised 28 types of robots and delivered 2,890 units to clients. The contract construction unit has completed 30 developments valued at 24.4 billion yuan, earning it the 11th rank in the country in terms of constructed area in 2023.

(With Reuters Inputs)