[ET Net News Agency, 30 November 2020] Moody's Investors Service said in a new report
that Chinese property companies' inventory levels have returned to historical averages
because of strong sales recovery since April 2020. Inventory months in Tier 1 cities fell
in October to the lowest level since December 2016. For Tier 2 and lower-tier cities, the
number remained at a healthy level.
"Inventory levels should stay healthy in the next 6-12 months given continuing sales
growth and developers' controlled pace of launching new saleable resources," said Cedric
Lai, a Moody's Vice President and Senior Analyst.
Chinese national property sales growth continued to accelerate in October, with
year-on-year contracted sales value growth, as measured by a three-month moving average,
improving to 23.9% in October from 21.3% and 18.9% in September and August respectively.
"But contracted sales value growth for the 30 developers we track (of the 70 we rate)
was slightly slower, decelerating to 20.7% in October from 23.7% in September," adds Lai.
Onshore and offshore bond issuance by rated developers slowed in November, with onshore
issuance declining to RMB11.1 billion (US$1.7 billion) in November from RMB13 billion
(US$2 billion) in October.
Moody's Asian Liquidity Stress sub-indicator for rated high-yield Chinese developers
increased slightly to 20.3% in October from 18.6% in September as operating cash flow
weakened for one developer. (KL)