Greentown China 2025 Annual Report Analysis: "Evolution" Behind the Pressure

Ask AI · Why can focusing on high-energy cities’ investment strategies improve risk resistance?

Greentown China’s 2025 performance decline has sparked widespread discussion. But contrary to common perception, Greentown China in 2025 is actually “evolving.”

Greentown China’s 2025 annual report “has been released.”

Data shows that Greentown China achieved operating revenue of 154.97B yuan in 2025, with net profit attributable to shareholders of 71 million yuan, both indicators declining compared to 2024.

It is understood that this result is mainly due to Greentown China promoting inventory clearance years ago, leading to a drop in gross profit margin on recognized revenue and asset impairment losses of 4.9 billion yuan. Therefore, this performance is similar to a “speedy clearance” of the past, with more obvious phased characteristics.

Compared to the surface data pressure, the quietly “evolving” state of Greentown China is perhaps more worthy of attention.

Foundation** “More Stable”**

Once, China’s real estate industry experienced a period of “rapid growth.” During that time, many developers eagerly competed in expansion, relying on high debt and high leverage to grow quickly, thus burdened with heavy debt.

But with the deep industry adjustment underway, Chinese real estate companies’ operational focus is shifting from “old” to “new.” Unlike the previous model of growth through high leverage, recent years have seen developers increasingly prioritize safety attributes, opening a path to breakthrough with a steady approach.

Looking across various developers, Greentown China can be regarded as one of the “top students” in debt safety.

In 2025, Greentown China’s short-term debt balance due within one year was 24.74B yuan, down 31.66B yuan from 6.92B yuan at the end of 2024, accounting for 18.6% of total debt, down 4.5 percentage points from the end of 2024, setting a new low.

During the year, Greentown China’s corporate deposits and cash totaled about 63.2 billion yuan, 2.6 times the short-term debt balance due within one year, continuing to increase from 2.3 times at the end of 2024, reaching a historical peak.

In addition, Greentown China also boasts strong financing capabilities, capable of continuously injecting “fresh water” to solidify its stable financial profile.

By the end of 2025, Greentown China’s weighted average financing cost of total debt had fallen to 3.3%, down 40 basis points from 3.7% at the end of 2024.

Looking at 2025, Greentown China first successfully issued a three-year, $500 million senior note in the first half of the year, becoming the first offshore dollar bond in the Chinese real estate sector since February 2023, breaking the “issuance drought” of dollar bonds for developers, and completing about $802 million of offshore debt refinancing. Over the whole year, the company completed approximately $1.01B of offshore debt refinancing.

Meanwhile, Greentown China also issued 17 domestic bonds totaling 14.89B yuan, including 2-3 year credit bonds of 10 billion yuan and 1-year supply chain ABN of 4.89B yuan; the cost of domestic medium- and long-term credit bond financing significantly decreased, with the three-year medium-term note interest rate dropping from 4.37% in March to 3.18% in September, and bond performance in the secondary market remained strong, with valuation yields sharply declining since March.

From the current perspective, holding safety “chips,” Greentown China is demonstrating its risk resistance during the real estate adjustment period. Looking ahead, a new real estate era will eventually return, and with its safety attributes, Greentown China is expected to take the lead and become a “pioneer” driving industry recovery.

Investment**“More Precise”**

For the existing industry, “Father of Competitive Strategy” Michael Porter pointed out three fundamental competitive strategies, one of which is “focus.”

As developers gradually straighten out their main debt issues, their operational focus will ultimately shift to the asset side—namely, how to invest precisely to acquire high-quality projects.

As a developer focusing on high-energy cities,** Greentown China further chose to prioritize “high-quality regions” as key investment areas in 2025.** Throughout the year, the company added 50 new projects, with a total salable area of about 3.18 million square meters. The rights-based land acquisition amount and expected new project value increased by 6% and 25%, respectively, at 119k yuan and 135.5 billion yuan. Specifically, 86% of the project value is in first- and second-tier cities, with the Yangtze River Delta accounting for 81%, including Hangzhou at 38%.

By the end of 2025, Greentown China had a total of 146 land reserve projects, including those under construction and planned, with a total construction area of about 23.71 million square meters, of which rights-based area was about 15.06 million square meters. The proportion of high-energy city project value further increased compared to the end of 2024, with about 80% in first- and second-tier cities, and about 64% in the Yangtze River Delta.

“High-quality regions” often have strong agglomeration effects and are key areas for population and resource inflow. Greentown China’s investment layout in these areas can also provide strong support for subsequent project sales and clearance, forming a virtuous cycle.

The company’s annual report also confirms this. In 2025, the conversion rate of newly acquired projects reached 33%, contributing about 45.3 billion yuan in sales during the year. Four projects, including Yuehaitang in Hangzhou and Greentang in Xi’an, have been fully sold out.

Currently, supply in the land market is shrinking, and high-quality projects are relatively scarce. For Greentown China, investing in “high-quality regions” is not easy, but the company is on the right track and will continue to firmly implement this strategy.

Geng Zhongqiang, Acting CEO of Greentown China, said at the earnings release that for 2026 investment strategies, they will “place great importance on assessing project quality,” actively explore structural opportunities for high-quality land in non-hot cities while deepening core city development.

“We will focus more on the intrinsic quality of projects rather than simply judging by city tier. As for land acquisition scale for the year, we preliminarily set it around 100 billion yuan, with adjustments based on market dynamics,” Geng said.

Quality**“Higher”**

American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed the famous “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” in 1943. The five levels of needs include physiological needs, which encompass housing needs.

Statistics show that in the 2010 sixth national census, the average number of rooms per household was 3.29, with an average housing area of 31.4 square meters per person, and 1.01 rooms per person. By the 2020 seventh census, these indicators had changed to 3.18 rooms per household, 37.76 square meters per person, and 1.07 rooms per person.

It is evident that “having a house to live in” has become a reality for Chinese people. Based on this, “whether one can live better” will become the new contradiction.

In recent years, policies have continuously aimed at improving residential quality. In March 2025, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the national standard “Residential Project Norms,” providing clear guidelines for “good housing” construction; the “14th Five-Year Plan” also mentioned “building safe, comfortable, green, and smart ‘good houses.’”

After the bubble burst, China’s real estate logic is returning to its starting point—residential living. For developers, “good houses” undoubtedly present opportunities, as they will promote the strengthening of commodity residential consumer attributes and help shift their operating models from financial to manufacturing attributes.

Notably, Greentown China is currently leading in the “good houses” track.

In 2025, Greentown China has ranked first for four consecutive years in product strength evaluations by CRIC, C&W, and E-House Think Tank, and has won 122 domestic and international design awards.

Throughout the year, all Greentown China projects were delivered on time with high quality. The company delivered 210 projects, including self-operated and agency projects, totaling about 22.69 million square meters, with approximately 119k households. Overall delivery satisfaction reached 94 points, further improving from 2024.

Based on the “Excellent Housing System,” “Suitable for恒 System,” “Smart System,” and “Industry Interior System,” in 2025, Greentown China further integrated customer needs and application feedback, upgrading and focusing on ten key technical systems, with an overall application rate of 91% in new projects.

In the same year, Greentown China also established a Product Innovation Research Institute, launched an AI drawing cloud platform for fully automated blueprint organization, and implemented the “Good House Laboratory” in projects in Beijing, Yuyuming, Xi’an Guiguan Oriental, and Shanghai Chao Ming Bund, with a clear trend of product strength enhancement.

Undoubtedly, Greentown China has become one of the most proactive developers responding to the “good houses” call. Looking ahead, with continuous improvement in product strength and technological reserves, the company is expected to become a representative of China’s “quality era” in real estate, enjoying greater market premiums.

Editor | Chen Bin