(Yicai Global) May 22 -- China's property development industry is being shaken up by new players as the example of Aaron Real Estate shows. The textile firm entered China's top 20 list of land buyers this year.

Aaron, owned by Jiangsu province-based Aaron Group, came in closely behind some big state-owned developers by acquiring two popular plots in Xi’an and Guangzhou to record a total of new land purchases of nearly CNY9.5 billion (USD1.4 billion) this year. For the two plots, Aaron bid higher than property giants Longfor Group Holding, Country Garden Holdings, and China Resources Land, touching the upper limit.

Aaron is seeing opportunities as big Chinese developers are having financial troubles amid tightening regulation so the firm began investing heavily in first and second-tier cities in 2022. First, Aaron cooperated with Longfor to acquire land in Hefei and teamed with Shanghai New Huangpu Real Estate to seize assets in the eastern city. But in November 2022, it stepped up to buy land in Shenzhen independently. Moreover, Chairman Liu Boxiang has appeared in some real estate projects in the past as a financial investor.

Regional property firms that have sound financials are active again after staying on the sidelines and watching the big rivals grow during the real estate boom from 2017 to 2019, according to research institute CRIC China. For example, Weixing Group, which was mainly known for manufacturing pipes first, has also been acquiring land on a large scale in recent years.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi