Annual Report Deep Dive | Decoding Yuexiu Property's 2025 Annual Report: Three Capabilities to Navigate Cycles

Industry shakeouts are accelerating, and the divergence within property developers’ cohorts is becoming increasingly evident. According to monitoring by the China Index Academy, in 2025, the number of property developers in each cohort continued to shrink noticeably. There are 10 developers with sales exceeding CNY 8B; this is down by 1 from the previous year. There are 73 enterprises above CNY 10 billion; this is down by 13 from the previous year.

But this also clearly reflects the huge differences in risk-resilience among developers during the industry adjustment period. A group of outstanding companies have, by leveraging strong resilience, weathered the cycle and become “top performers” that continue to show improvement in a differentiated market.

On March 31, Yuexiu Property released its full-year 2025 performance report. During the reporting period, Yuexiu Property recorded cumulative contracted sales revenue of CNY 106.21 billion. Its industry ranking jumped dramatically from 37th in 2021 to 9th, maintaining its position in the first echelon. In 2025, revenue reached CNY 86.46 billion, staying on a growth trend year over year. After-tax profit was CNY 1.78 billion, up 21.4% year over year—making it one of the very few developers in the industry that continues to generate profits.

At the performance conference, Yuexiu Property Chairman Lin Zhaoyuan also expressed unwavering confidence in Yuexiu’s sustained future development. He said that in 2026 the company will focus on the work theme of “delivering stable performance with greater precision, strengthening capabilities through reform, and promoting development through transformation.” The company will stabilize its CNY 1 trillion scale, consolidate its core market position, make incremental gains, and implement “stability supported by investment and investment driving steadiness—investing to achieve stability.” It will further strengthen and deepen its “one main and two wings” strategy, and promote transformation and upgrading and high-quality development through “Four Good Enterprises” and precision management, achieving a favorable start to the “15th Five-Year Plan period” and smoothly weathering the cycle.

Sales fully display resilience; strong cash-generation solidifies a steady base

When overall industry sales are generally trending downward, Yuexiu Property’s performance curve has held firm against the tide.

According to Yuexiu Property’s annual performance report, during the period the group achieved contracted sales of CNY 106.21 billion. KeRuij (CRIC) ranked Yuexiu Property 9th on its 2025 developers’ sales chart, and it has remained in the first-echelon group for three consecutive years. Among them, the six core cities achieved contracted sales of about RMB 90.9 billion.

This sales performance is particularly valuable in the current industry environment. It should be pointed out that in 2025 the real estate market is in a critical policy window for “bottoming out and recovering.” Both the central and local authorities have already rolled out a series of measures to “stabilize the property market,” and the signals to support policies are clear. However, the effects of policy are not released overnight; from implementation to substantive feedback at the sales end still requires a transmission period.

As a result, developers’ overall sales have not yet shown a trend-level reversal. Data from institutions shows that in 2025, among the top 10 developers by industry sales ranking, the average year-on-year decline in signed sales was 16%. The top-tier cohort is also under notable pressure. Against this backdrop, Yuexiu Property demonstrates performance that is significantly better than its peers—the company’s sales decline in the same period was less than half of the industry average line.

Industry insiders say this relative “ability to resist the downturn” reflects not only the resilience of the company’s project layout and product structure, but also indirectly confirms that in the stage where policy transmission has not been fully implemented, high-quality developers have begun to show signs of stabilizing ahead of the broader market.

Behind these achievements is Yuexiu Property’s commitment to the basic principles of “prioritizing execution rhythm and balancing volume and price.” Against the backdrop of overall industry sales pressure, the company adopts a two-pronged strategy for “investment and de-stocking”—it precisely controls the land-acquisition timing at the front end without chasing high prices, while it also does not miss windows for low-premium deals; at the back end, it strengthens the ability to sell spot and quasi-spot inventory to curb the growth of inventory. Meanwhile, it continues to advance whole-cycle management upgrades such as market research, customer operations, and sales conversion, and optimizes the structure of marketing expense ratios to increase the share of transactions from its own channels and existing customers. Ultimately, it achieves a dual breakthrough in both sales-end downside resistance and operating efficiency.

For this reason, by the end of 2025, Yuexiu Property’s after-tax profit increased by 21.4% year over year, and core net profit reached CNY 260 million, making it one of the very few developers that remain in profitable status. At the same time, operating cash flow has continued for many years in a net inflow trend; throughout the year it stayed at a high level of CNY 13.94 billion, demonstrating strong internal “cash-generation” capability. This not only provides ample funding reserves for its subsequent investment and layout, but also builds a solid barrier for overall cash-flow safety, making it a key trump card for Yuexiu Property to move forward steadily.

Not only that, Yuexiu Property’s “stability” is also reflected in many other aspects, such as ongoing optimization of its debt structure.

As of the end of 2025, Yuexiu Property’s proportion of debt due within one year was 26%, while medium- and long-term debt accounted for 74%. At period end, cash stood at CNY 46.76 billion; the coverage multiple for short-term debts due within one year reached 1.7x. The company’s weighted average borrowing interest rate fell to 3.05%, down 44 basis points year over year. For two consecutive years it has maintained a downward trend in financing costs, and both its financing cost and the magnitude of the reduction are ranked first in the industry among local state-owned enterprises. Based on its solid financial position, Yuexiu Property maintains “all-green” status across the “three red lines,” and also holds “stable” outlooks for its investment credit ratings with both S&P and Fitch.

DBS Bank stated that Yuexiu Property’s stock price is currently in a historically low range, and its valuation somewhat diverges from its fundamentals. Meanwhile, the company’s sales performance leads the industry, which is expected to provide strong support for both the stock price and valuation, leaving room for valuation repair. Therefore, DBS maintains a “buy” rating.

Multi-dimensional judgments put ahead of decision-making; deepening in six major core benchmark cities

Currently, the real estate industry is entering a new stage in which the supply-demand pattern is undergoing deep structural adjustment and the market value logic is being reshaped.

A commentary published by Xinhua News Agency says that China’s real estate market has moved past an era of uniform price increases or uniform price declines, entering a structural new stage characterized by “core stability and peripheral clearance.”

Multiple agencies’ monitoring data also shows that the national property market is forming a clear “80/20 divergence” pattern. Around 20% of core cities’ core areas resist downturns, preserve value, and see mild increases, while about 80% of third- and fourth-tier cities are in a predicament of liquidity exhaustion. The regions that truly function as an “asset ballast” are mainly concentrated in China’s Tier-1 cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen—and strong Tier-2 cities such as Hangzhou and Chengdu. These areas generally share three common features: solid industrial foundations, continuous net inflows of population, and well-developed supporting resources—forming the underlying logic of asset value in core cities.

Recently, the “early-spring property market” momentum has also been initiated first by Tier-1 cities. The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that among 70 large and medium-sized cities in February, Tier-1 cities were the first to end the consecutive 9-month decline in prices for newly built commodity residential housing. Core cities such as Beijing and Shanghai also saw synchronized warming up in second-hand home prices.

Against this backdrop, optimizing asset quality and making precise investments have become the core proposition for developers.

In response, Yuexiu Property has established a multi-dimensional market research system to promote efficient coordination and linkage between the investment side and various business units, providing solid data support for investment decisions. At the same time, the company advances product planning and development strategy pre-research by using investment to pull the positioning of projects forward, completing it at the land-acquisition stage to effectively reduce uncertainties in the development process and ensure that investment returns remain predictable.

In terms of strategic orientation, Yuexiu Property adheres to a core-city focus strategy, proposing an execution philosophy of “reading the city, reading the land, and reading the people.” It deeply studies the demand characteristics of different cities and continues to strengthen its local operation capabilities. The company also actively coordinates with local governments to optimize the land-supply cadence, building differentiated competitive advantages through government-enterprise interaction and achieving mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.

Based on this mature investment management system, Yuexiu Property’s investment focus is highly concentrated in six core cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Chengdu. In 2025, the proportion of equity investment in these six cities reached as high as 96.3%, reflecting a very strong intensity of investment focus. From the perspective of sales contribution, the effectiveness of this layout is significant. Sales in Beijing exceeded CNY 30 billion; Shanghai and Guangzhou achieved CNY 22.2 billion and CNY 29.1 billion respectively. Combined, the three cities contributed about 78% of the company’s total sales. Overall, the company’s sales share in Tier-1 and Tier-2 core cities has reached 85.6%.

Behind the CNY 1 trillion-plus sales scale lies the forward-looking layout at the investment end, and it also cannot be separated from a solid foundation in land reserves. By the end of 2025, Yuexiu Property’s total land reserves were 18.55 million square meters. Its layout continues to concentrate toward high-level cities, with the combined share of Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities reaching 94.4%. Among newly added land reserves in 2025, the share of Tier-1 cities further increased to 67.7%. In addition, Yuexiu Property seized the windows for increased land acquisition during market pullbacks and for low-premium deals, and precisely added positions; ultimately it controlled the average land acquisition premium rate within 9.3%, which is nearly 50% lower than the average of the TOP 10 developers.

It is worth noting that in February this year, Yuexiu Group acquired the Ma Chang land parcel at the intersection of Guangzhou Zhujiang New Town—Financial City—Pazhou across the three major CBDs with a bid of CNY 23.6 billion, drawing wide attention in the industry.

Industry insiders say the project is the last contiguous urban renewal land parcel in Zhujiang New Town. It connects ultra-luxury commercial assets already signed with SKP, high-end hotels, super-prime office spaces, and other types through an open public space. Yuexiu Property is expected to deeply participate in integrated city development and operations thanks to its capabilities in comprehensive development and management. Previously, the group’s “incubation by the parent company—injecting into the listed company” model has been validated through the Pazhou South TOD, providing a mature path for subsequent asset operations. Projects like Ma Chang, as scarce assets, can not only bring long-term incremental performance, but also drive systematic upgrades in the company’s product strength, brand strength, and operational capabilities.

Crafting hard-core “good housing” to anchor mainstream demand and build a moat for the industry

If optimizing land reserves is about building momentum for future development, then refining products and services is the internal capability that companies forge for long-term competition.

Industry insiders say that, amid continued deepening of structural divergence in the industry, only those who stay committed to product-centric thinking—using innovative concepts and extreme user experiences to craft truly “good housing” that fits market demand—can seize initiative in a new round of cycle.

In 2025, policy windows in core cities such as Beijing and Shanghai gradually opened, but homebuyers are becoming even more cautious in their choices. Funds are becoming more rational and concentrating toward projects with stronger certainty. What kind of project qualifies as “strong certainty”?

“Good housing” has been written into government work reports for two consecutive years, so this policy direction has long been synchronized with market demand. In other words, “good housing” is no longer confined to the concept level; it becomes a new engine for real estate investment and consumption, and it has also gained recognition from homebuyers who are willing to put real money behind it.

Data from the China Index Academy shows that Yuexiu Property’s Heyue Wangyun project in Beijing had a sell-through rate of 96% in the month of its launch. With sales of CNY 9.25 billion, it ranked first on Beijing’s 2025 commodity residential housing sales chart. Shanghai’s Feiyun Yuefu, with CNY 15.9 billion and 1,022 units, achieved first place on both Shanghai’s sales unit count and sales area……

And the performance of these single projects is just one facet of the market recognition Yuexiu Property has received. Looking at the company as a whole, Yuexiu Property has also achieved solid results in multiple core cities. In Guangzhou—its home base—the company ranked TOP 2 locally with sales of CNY 29.1 billion. In Beijing, it surpassed CNY 30 billion, also ranking second on the list. Shanghai achieved CNY 22.2 billion and ranked seventh.

As Yuexiu Property’s Chairman Lin Zhaoyuan stated at the performance conference: “The company always upholds the long-term strategy of the ‘Four Good Enterprises’—‘good products, good services, good brands, and good teams.’”

In practice, from “building houses” to “building good houses,” and then to “building good living,” Yuexiu Property continues to deepen its customer research system, implements the “4X4 good products” concept, completes standardized upgrades across four product lines, and differentiates its offerings to better meet the needs of high-end improvement buyers and quality-driven demand segments. By strongly promoting design-and-construction integration and upgrading the “Yue Smart Manufacturing (悦智造)” system, it achieves synchronized improvements in product quality, construction efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Multiple projects have won industry design and quality awards.

At the same time, focusing on customer needs across the full lifecycle, Yuexiu Property builds a product innovation system combining “research—build—service” as a three-in-one approach. It accelerates R&D and application of healthy living technologies, and promotes the building of “good housing and good communities” through integrated “products + services + operations,” achieving a leapfrog upgrade from product delivery to value co-creation.

At the new starting point of the “15th Five-Year Plan period,” the pattern of the real estate industry is undergoing profound change, and resources and market space continue to concentrate toward companies with comprehensive strength. With a healthy financial foundation, precise investment layout, solid product capabilities, and a steady development momentum, Yuexiu Property has carved out an independent run in this wave of industry reshuffling. Its experience shows that the key to weathering the cycle is not the size of the scale, but whether the base is solid, whether the strategy is clear, and whether execution is in place. This is precisely what real estate’s move toward high-quality development requires.