China's Property Developers See Big Drop in January Sales

China Vanke, the country's largest developer by sales, said on Friday its sales stood at 12.2 billion yuan ($1.94 billion) in January, a fall of 39 percent from a year earlier, as Chinese developers began the year on a sour note.

Besides being the market leader by sales, Vanke's performance is well-watched because it reports monthly sales first. Guangzhou R&F Properties

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[2777.HK  Loading...      ()   ], another major mainland developer, said on Friday that January sales
fell more than half compared with last year. 
   
Vanke's decline in sales in January, as calculated by Reuters based on figures it reported in the same month last year, represent a steeper rate of decline than the 30.3 percent fall in December. 
   
Though results for Chinese developers are subject to seasonal variation because of the Lunar New Year, a slow time for property sales, markets are jittery over reports of very weak sales at the start of this year. The new year fell in January this year but in February in 2011. 
   
Guangzhou R&F reported sales of 1.23 billion yuan ($195 million) in January, down 57 percent from 2.84 billion yuan the same month in 2011. It was also a drop of 59 percent compared with December 2011's 3.03 billion yuan in sales. 
   
Last year, China Vanke saw sales climb 12 percent, to 121.5 billion yuan ($19.3 billion), though it missed its widely reported target. Guangzhou R&F Properties also missed its target for 2011 and saw sales for the year drop 6.8 percent.
   
Vanke's shares closed up 1.4 percent in Shenzhen before its sales announcement, which came after the close of trade. Guangzhou R&F, which reported during the trading day, closed up 3.15 percent in Hong Kong, with its shares having shed 33 percent in the last year.