(Yicai Global) Jan. 10 -- Chinese real estate companies have entered another tough year as almost CNY1 trillion (USD147.7 billion) worth of bonds are about to expire.

Property firms need to repay CNY958 billion (USD141 billion) of onshore and offshore bonds this year, up by CNY70 billion (USD10.3 billion) from 2022, according to a report released by China Index Academy recently. Almost 66 percent of the total are onshore notes.

The first quarter will be a peak of repayment with more than CNY100 billion worth of debt maturing during each of the two months of January and March. But also April and July will have sums exceeding CNY100 billion.

The debt repayment pressure of property developers this year is still large, and currently, sales have not significantly rebounded, so some companies may still default on their debts, said Liu Shui, director at the institute.

However, as Chinese regulators have continuously increased their policy support for property enterprises since the fourth quarter of last year, the financing situation is improving.

The total financing of 100 major Chinese real estate enterprises exceeded CNY100 billion for the first time last year in December as the tally reached CNY101.8 billion, rising by 85 percent from a month earlier and up by 33 percent from a year ago, according to data from CRIC.

However, overseas financing channels remain blocked and no real estate company issued new overseas bonds in December. After a number of Chinese developers, including China Evergrande Group, defaulted on their debts last year, international credit ratings of firms in the sector were generally downgraded. Some firms have even voluntarily terminated their offshore ratings in order to mitigate the adverse effects.

Editor: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi