The sales total exceeded 2 trillion yuan, with outstanding contributions from first - and second tier cities. The performance of the top 100 real estate companies in the first half of 2024 has been released, and more than half of the top 100 real estate companies have also submitted their half year performance reports. According to statistics from the Zhongzhi Research Institute, the total sales of the top 100 real estate companies in the first half of the year were 2083.47 billion yuan, with a year-on-year decline narrowing for four consecutive months. The sales growth of typical real estate companies is strong. Industry insiders believe that with the implementation of multiple favorable policies in the market in the first half of the year and the continuous deepening of their coverage, there is still considerable room for the recovery of the real estate market in the second half of the year. The performance mostly comes from the relatively conservative target setting in first and second tier cities. Recently, most real estate companies and related institutions have successively announced their performance "results" for the first half of this year. In the first half of the year, the total sales of the top 100 real estate companies exceeded 2 trillion yuan, and this achievement still generally relies on first and second tier cities. According to relevant statistical data from the Zhongzhi Research Institute, in the first six months of this year, about 30% of the sales performance of 20 representative real estate companies came from first tier cities; 54% of sales performance comes from second tier cities. Among them, the sales contribution rates of first tier cities deeply cultivated by real estate companies such as China Construction Third Engineering Bureau, Yuexiu Property, and China Overseas Land Development are all over 50%. In the sales ranking, this magazine noticed that there were a total of six real estate companies with sales exceeding 100 billion yuan in the first half of this year, a decrease of one compared to the same period last year. Although the industry is still in a period of adjustment, leading real estate companies such as Poly Developments, China Overseas Land Development, Vanke, and Greentown China have shown some resilience and have entered the "billion dollar tier". The average sales revenue of the top 10 real estate companies is about 102.9 billion yuan. It is worth noting that the sales situation in June has improved compared to before. According to relevant data from the Zhongzhi Research Institute, in June of this year, the sales of the top 100 real estate companies increased by 26.05% month on month. Nearly 60% of real estate companies achieved month on month growth in performance, nearly 30% achieved year-on-year growth in performance, and some typical real estate companies had strong sales growth. Our magazine found that real estate companies including China Resources Land, Yuexiu Property, Jinmao, and Poly Real Estate saw a month on month increase of over 50% in their performance in June; Real estate companies such as Poly Developments, China Merchants Shekou, and Longfor Properties have achieved growth of around 20%. In fact, in recent years, more and more real estate companies have actively turned to scale control, pursued stable development, and tended to be conservative in setting sales targets. In the first half of this year, only two typical real estate companies increased their sales targets, while the rest mostly maintained the average level of recent years. According to statistics from the Zhongzhi Research Institute, among the real estate companies that have announced their sales targets, only Poly Real Estate and Binjiang Group have achieved over half of their target completion rates from January to June. With the implementation of a package of real estate policies to boost market confidence, it is expected that market activity will rebound in the third quarter of this year, and sales of real estate companies will improve, "said analysts from the research institute. After reviewing the semi annual performance reports of several real estate companies, this magazine noticed that in the first half of this year, typical real estate companies mainly focused on improving their products, and their land acquisition strategies were mainly based on "quantity input as output". Central and state-owned enterprises actively participated in land auctions. In terms of sales focus, this magazine found that in the first six months of this year, the proportion of improved and high-end products sold by many enterprises has significantly increased. This phenomenon is also reflected in the data of relevant institutions. According to third-party organizations, the proportion of sales revenue from improvement projects of typical real estate enterprises with an area of 140-200 square meters increased by 4.2 percentage points from January to June this year to 24.7%; The sales proportion of high-end projects increased by 2.8 percentage points year-on-year to 22.0%, and the sales proportion of these two types of products has increased in all tier cities, with the most significant increase in first tier cities. In contrast, the sales share of essential products below 90 square meters and "first-time renovation" products between 90-140 square meters in various tier cities has decreased year-on-year. In response to this trend, industry analysts believe that the increase in sales share of improvement and high-end products reflects that homebuyers are more pursuing improvements in living conditions, provided that their basic living needs are met. In terms of land acquisition, the total amount of land acquired by the top 100 real estate companies in the first half of the year exceeded 380 billion yuan, with the Yangtze River Delta leading the country in land acquisition amount. With the frequent implementation of land auction policies in the first half of the year, major real estate companies are actively adapting and adjusting their strategies. For advantageous plots with greater potential, real estate companies have a higher enthusiasm for acquiring land and competition is becoming more intense. And from the land acquisition amount of the top 10 real estate companies, it can be seen that central and state-owned enterprises still maintain a high level of participation. Zhonghai Real Estate, China Railway Group, and other companies have extensively laid out in multiple key cities, and some private enterprises are also replenishing land reserves in key areas of deep cultivation. Specifically, from January to June this year, Jianfa Real Estate ranked first in the industry with a land acquisition amount of 27.9 billion yuan; Zhongjian Yipin ranks second with a land acquisition amount of 21.3 billion yuan; Greentown China, which spent 19 billion yuan to acquire land in the first half of the year, ranked third. In terms of newly added value, Jianfa Real Estate, China Resources Land, and China Construction First Class occupy the top three positions on the list with newly added value of 60.8 billion yuan, 48.1 billion yuan, and 47 billion yuan, respectively. But with the intensification of differentiation in the land auction market, the overall land acquisition situation of real estate companies remains cautious, and "keeping expenditures within limits and focusing on the core" has become the current investment strategy for most real estate companies to acquire land. Taking Longfor Group as an example, in the first half of the year, it harvested a total of 7 plots of land in 7 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou. The management of Longfor publicly revealed that the company's attitude towards land acquisition is to not only grasp the investment pace, but also highly focus on first - and second tier high-energy cities, by strictly adhering to the investment scale and selecting the best among the best. The overall decrease in financing costs and steady progress in delivery work have been made in the first half of the year. In terms of financing and delivery guarantee for real estate enterprises, the strength of favorable policies has been continuously increased, which has promoted real estate enterprises to further open up new financing opportunities and achieved good results in delivery guarantee. In terms of financing, in the first half of the year, regulatory authorities established a real estate financing coordination mechanism and repeatedly emphasized the need to strengthen the responsibilities of various parties such as the government, real estate enterprises, and financial institutions to better meet the reasonable financing needs of real estate projects. According to statistics from CRIC, the total financing amount of real estate companies in the first half of the year was 213.1 billion yuan; The overall cost of new bond financing is 3.17%, a decrease of 0.43 percentage points from the full year of 2023. Regarding the contraction of financing scale, Liu Shui, the director of enterprise research at the Zhongzhi Research Institute, analyzed that for real estate companies, the more financing they obtain, the greater their future debt pressure will be. Companies that focus on stable operations will actively reduce their debt scale and therefore moderately reduce financing. However, due to the fact that most of the real estate companies that have successfully raised funds are operating steadily, the financing costs have actually shown a significant decrease. He pointed out that in the first half of this year, the average interest rate of real estate company bond financing decreased by 0.7 percentage points compared to the same period last year, with credit bonds, offshore debt, and ABS decreasing by 0.62, 1.66, and 0.66 percentage points respectively compared to the same period last year. Against the backdrop of real estate gradually returning to residential and livelihood attributes, delivery has become the most important link in the business chain of real estate enterprises. Focusing on the delivery aspect, as we enter 2024, real estate companies still attach great importance to delivery tasks, and some real estate companies such as Greenland Holdings and Sunac China have set annual delivery targets, with steady progress in delivery work in the first half of the year. The "2024 First Half Delivery Scale Ranking of Chinese Real Estate Enterprises" shows that the top three delivery companies are Country Garden, Greenland Holdings, and Vanke, and the delivery threshold for the TOP10 real estate companies has reached 32000 units. In addition, 8 companies including Sunac China and New City Holdings have delivered over 50000 sets; 15 companies have delivered over 20000 sets. And from the delivery situation, some companies have achieved early delivery. Among them, in the first half of the year, Longfor delivered a total of 121 projects in 43 cities across the country, including approximately 50000 high-quality residential units. 20% of the projects were delivered more than a month in advance. Analysts believe that in the current market environment, delivery capability can connect various chains such as products, engineering, and services, which is a measure of the comprehensive strength of real estate enterprises. The regulatory policies have been continuously optimized in the first half of the year, and the effects have gradually become apparent. If the financing policies are further relaxed in the second half of the year, it will ensure the construction and delivery of projects to a greater extent. The transaction of new houses in first tier cities may be moderately repaired, and the market is expected to stabilize and recover faster. Looking back at the first half of the year, a series of related policies have been continuously implemented, and market confidence has rebounded. Looking ahead to the second half of the year, with the support of many powerful factors such as macroeconomic and capital markets, the stabilization and recovery of the real estate market is expected to accelerate. At the policy level, an anonymous institutional head predicts that in the second half of the year, related supporting policies are expected to continue to be optimized and implemented in terms of "stabilizing the market" and "reducing inventory". In terms of stabilizing the market, some cities are still expected to continue reducing mortgage interest rates and transaction taxes, and there is still room for optimization of purchase restrictions in first tier cities. In terms of reducing inventory, the 'trade in' model may continue to be promoted in various regions, and policies to revitalize existing land through recovery, acquisition, and other means are also expected to make progress, "said the person in charge. Overall, the transaction volume of new houses in first tier cities will moderately recover in the second half of the year under the driving force of policy optimization, and the year-on-year decline in transaction area of new houses in second tier, third - and fourth tier cities may significantly narrow Liu Shui believes that in the short term, there is still significant room for policy optimization in first tier cities. With continued policy efforts in the second half of the year, market sentiment in first tier cities is expected to continue to improve. In addition, many industry insiders also expect that in the second half of the year, the delivery status of real estate companies may continue to improve on the basis of regulatory authorities continuing to attach importance to the work of ensuring the delivery of houses, strengthening relevant work guidance, and "whitelist" support for real estate project financing, which will accelerate the implementation and show significant results. (New Society)