Property giants smash sales targets as prices soar

Sales of China's three largest property developers have exceeded 200 billion yuan ($29.98 billion) so far this year, fueled by a huge housing boom.

In addition to Vanke Co Ltd, Evergrande Group and Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd, two other property giants－Greenland Group and Poly Real Estate Group Co Ltd－will also see a similar breakthrough in sales this year, and more property developers will meet the sales target of 100 billion yuan, expert say.

The transaction volume of Shanghai-based Greenland Group reached 144.73 billion yuan in the first eight months, and that of Guangzhou-based Poly Real Estate Group Co Ltd was 137.36 billion yuan.

"There will be more property companies whose sales are in excess of 100 billion yuan, as quite a few of them had met 60 percent their annual sales target in the first six months," said Ouyang Jie, vice-president of Shanghai-based property agency Future Land Development Holdings Ltd.

Industry data showed that both the transaction volume and salable area of commercial units of several companies had more than doubled in the first eight months.

Overall, the revenue of A-share listed property companies increased 44.6 percent to 136 billion yuan in the first half of 2016, according to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in late September, which monitored the performance of 2,271 nonfinancial A-share listed companies.

Thanks to their superior performance, some property firms have readjusted their sales targets.

Evergrande Group, the Guangdong-based real estate company that went public in Hong Kong, raised its annual sales target to 300 billion yuan from 200 billion yuan in the middle of the year, according to a company filling.

These property giants are cashing in on the continued rise in house prices across China.

The price of new apartments rose in 64 of 70 cities that were monitored in August, compared with 51 in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The price in 17 cities increased more than 10 percent over the previous month. In Xiamen and Hefei, prices even rose by 40 percent month-on-month.