(Yicai Global) July 7 -- Poly Developments and Holdings Group, China’s largest property developer by sales, posted double-digit profit and revenue growth in the first six months from a year ago, reversing last year’s decline.

Poly’s net profit jumped 10.8 percent in the first half from the same period last year to CNY12 billion (USD1.7 billion), while revenue surged 24.9 percent to CNY138.4 billion (USD19.1 billion), according to the Guangzhou-based developer’s latest financial report.

This is a big improvement from 2022 when net profit plunged 33 percent year on year to CNY18.3 billion (USD2.5 billion) and revenue dipped 1.4 percent to CNY281.1 billion (USD38.8 billion) due to a sluggish real estate market.

Poly with the biggest Chinese developer by sales in the six months ended June 30, with transactions soaring 12.7 percent from a year earlier to CNY236.8 billion (USD32.7 billion), pushing Vanke into second place by CNY35 billion, according to the China Index Academy. In 2022, it was the second-largest with sales of CNY440.8 billion, trailing Country Garden’s CNY464.3 billion.

The property market has been recovering at different speeds in different cities since the second half of last year, Poly General Manager Zhou Dongli said in April. Major metropolises with strong economies are bouncing back faster, while the smaller third- and fourth-tier cities are lagging behind. And this trend is continuing this year, he added.

Despite the market downturn, Poly has continued to invest heavily in land acquisition in core cities. In the first half, it spent CNY40 billion (USD5.5 billion) on land, ranking second in the country after China Resources Land, according to the China Index Academy. Almost a third of this was for land plots in Beijing and Shanghai.

Editor: Kim Taylor