(Yicai Global) June 3 -- China’s property developers resumed issuing bonds overseas last month after skipping April to take advantage of cheaper financing costs as economic support policies helped restore short-term market liquidity.

Developers sold CNY16.8 billion (USD2.4 billion) worth of bonds in overseas markets in May, according to the latest data from the China Index Academy.

Coupons on the China-issued dollar bonds were particularly low due to Covid-19, the data show. As many firms have bonds due to mature this year and next they seized the opportunity to refinance debt. The average coupon on the bills issued by them overseas last month was 6.33 percent.

Many countries had begun to get their economies back in order last month and bond markets recovered as a result, said Pan Hao, a senior analyst at the Beike Real Estate Research Institute. Interest rates were at an 18-month low because of declining rates in China, he added.

CNY102 billion worth of overseas bonds sold by Chinese developers will come due in the first half of this year, and about CNY93.7 billion in the second, according to statistics from the China Real Estate Information’s research center. Next year’s total is around CNY178.2 billion.

Times China became the first developer to reveal plans on April 24 to restart bonds sales abroad, saying it intended to issue USD200 million in a one-year bill at 6 percent. Zhenro Properties and Country Garden also issued dollar bonds. They said the new funds would refinance existing overseas debt due within a year.

Editor: James Boynton