Zhongzhi Research Institute: The reshuffle among the top 100 real estate companies may continue. The total national urban housing demand during the "15th Five-Year Plan" is approximately 4.98 billion square meters.

Ask AI · What are the key factors behind the differentiation among the top 100 real estate companies?

Economic Daily reporter: Chen Mengyu Economic Daily editor: Wei Guanhong

On March 26, the China Index Academy released the “2026 Research Report on China’s Top 100 Real Estate Companies” in Beijing (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”).

The Report shows that in 2025, the national real estate market is still undergoing adjustments. Among the top 100 companies, their sales performance has diverged: 30% of companies focus on layout in core cities, fully promote the construction of “good homes,” adhere to precise investing, maintain relatively stable market positions, some companies’ operating stability is somewhat weak, and shuffling among the top 100 companies may continue.

Image source: China Index Academy

In the long run, during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, the demand for urban housing will still maintain a stable scale. Improved-demand demand will become the core driving force behind the incremental market. Areas such as urban renewal, operation of stock assets, and contract development (construction on behalf of others) have become important development momentum for the industry. Real estate developers need to balance the present and the long term—strengthening liquidity in the short term, maintaining appropriate investment, ensuring operational safety, and accelerating the construction of new real estate development models over the long term.

Image source: China Index Academy

With the market adjusting and sales performance continuing to decline, the market standing of 30% of companies remains relatively solid. In 2025, the real estate market is still undergoing adjustments, and the sales performance of the top 100 companies maintains a downward trend. Sales total and sales area were 32605.2 billion yuan and 14857.9 million square meters, respectively, down 18.1% and 24.3% year over year. Sales performance among the top 100 companies is differentiated. Thirty percent of companies from 2024 to 2025 rank among the top 100 in both sales revenue and land acquisition amounts. These companies focus on layout in core cities, fully promote the construction of “good homes,” and deliver sales performance. At the same time, they focus on supplementing high-quality land reserves in six core cities to improve the level of sales performance assurance, keeping their market standing relatively stable. Some companies may be constrained by insufficient support from their investment scale—“old inventory is hard to sell, and new supply is insufficient.” Or, due to limited development capabilities, their operational stability is weak, so shuffling among the top 100 companies may continue.

Liquidity risk is still present, and the differentiated trend of debt-servicing pressure continues to intensify. In 2025, the leverage ratio of the top 100 companies continues to rise, and liquidity pressure still needs to be relieved. Real estate developers should actively make use of various financing policies, do a good job of managing debt maturity profiles, and actively use policies such as “return land and exchange for land,” government reserve-and-storage of existing housing, and policies related to idle land to improve operations and enhance the safety of the capital chain.

During the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, the total demand for urban housing nationwide is about 4.98 billion square meters. Among them, the attractiveness to attract population in core cities remains prominent, and improved-demand demand becomes the core driving force behind the incremental market. Urban renewal and operation services bring opportunities for stock market development. During the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, key urban renewal tasks will be implemented, including renovations of older urban residential communities, renovations of older streets, renovations of older factories, and updates and renovations of urban infrastructure, among other focus areas. These involve a massive scale of direct investment. Against the backdrop of the real estate industry fully entering the stock (existing assets) era, professional operations and quality services have become the core engine for real estate companies to break through the development business ceiling and unlock the value of stock assets.

In the face of industry difficulties and development opportunities, real estate companies need to balance the present and the long term and seek a way to break through the bottleneck. In the short term, “survive” becomes the core focus of real estate companies’ operations at this stage: they should enhance liquidity, maintain appropriate investment levels, and ensure operational safety. Concretely, this means increasing efforts to reduce inventory, revitalizing existing commodity housing and idle land, and accelerating cash flow collection. Select advantageous cities and high-quality, small-scale land parcels to maintain appropriate investment levels. Fully leverage financial support policies to improve funding conditions.

In traditional development, in the long run, precise city layout, accelerating product iteration and upgrades, and using digital intelligence to empower marketing are needed. Actively develop contract development (construction on behalf of others) businesses, leverage professional capabilities and brand influence to provide services for incremental development. Focus on developing urban renewal businesses, leveraging core advantages to build a differentiated development model. Carry out operations and service businesses based on core capabilities, integrate internal and external resources, develop in coordination, and promote the formation of a new development model.

Economic Daily News (每经新闻)