(Yicai) Aug. 3 -- China's top 100 property developers reported CNY1.8 trillion (USD266.9 billion) in contracted sales in the first seven months of the year, with the pace of decline continuing to ease despite a seasonal slowdown in July.

The year-on-year decrease in cumulative sales narrowed by 0.6 percentage points from the first half, according to the China Index Academy (CIA). Monthly contracted sales plunged 39 percent from June to CNY217.9 billion (USD32.2 billion) in July as the market entered its traditional off-season.

The figures came after China's top Communist Party decision-making body, the Politburo, said at a July 30 meeting that efforts should be made to "stabilize the real estate market." Unlike the Politburo's economic meeting in late July last year, which did not explicitly mention the property sector, both economic work meetings this year have stressed the need to stabilize the housing market. The CIA said this suggests policy support could be strengthened further, with more city-specific measures expected.

According to another real estate data provider, the CRIC Research Center, transactions of newly built residential properties in 50 key Chinese cities fell 25.6 percent from June to 10.7 million square meters in July and were down 4.8 percent from a year earlier. The annual decline widened by 2.6 percentage points from June. Total transaction area reached about 83 million square meters in the first seven months, down 11 percent from the same period last year.

Leading Developers Outperform

The CIA said major developers, including China Overseas Land & Investment, China Resources Land, China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings, and China Jinmao Holdings Group, posted year-on-year sales growth in the first seven months. It attributed the gains to the companies' concentration of high-value projects in core cities, allowing them to benefit from improving conditions in those markets while continuing to upgrade products and enhance product premiums.

The Puri Data Intelligence Research Center said sales performance among developers has become increasingly polarized. Based on attributable sales, central state-owned enterprises showed the strongest resilience, with fewer than one-fifth reporting sales declines of more than 30 percent. Among local state-owned enterprises, 26 percent recorded slumps exceeding 30 percent, highlighting growing divergence within the group.

The divergence was even more pronounced among non-state-owned developers. Half of mixed-ownership developers posted declines of more than 30 percent, while nearly 80 percent of private developers reported negative growth. Even so, 15 percent of regional developers achieved sales growth despite the broader downturn, the above-mentioned source added.

Editor: Emmi Laine