Xinhua recently reported that, according to the E-House Real Estate Research Institute’s "Report on Real Estate Enterprises’ Capital in the First Quarter of 2014," China’s real estate companies are tight on money.
For the first quarter, the year-on-year increase in the rate of fully-funded capital was 6.6 percent, a significant drop from last year’s 26.5 percent. On the source of capital, year-on-year foreign investment decreased 33.9 percent, while money from domestic lending and self-raised capital increased by 20.4 percent and 9.6 percent respectively.
The year-on-year increase in the rate of money lent domestically, foreign investment, self-raised money, and other sources of capital also dropped by 12.7 percent, 66.7 percent, 11.7 percent, and 30.8 percent respectively.
Unlike the tight money in real estate, the land market was still hot. Ten typical cities’ land transfer fees totaled 269 billion yuan (US$44 billion), an increase of 83.1 percent from a year ago. The total in land transfer fees from first tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) was 175 billion yuan (US$28.6 billion), which was 35 percent of last year’s annual amount.
As both overseas capital and domestic capital are drying up and as land prices keep increasing, the real estate business faces a severe money challenge. "Mid-level and small companies need to prepare for bad times. Some companies that can only tolerate a low risk may be forced out of the market."
Source: Xinhua, May 13, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/house/bj/2014-05-13/c_1110654420.htm