(Yicai) April 1 -- China’s top 100 property developers nearly doubled their sales last month from the previous one, as the real estate industry has entered a traditional peak season. However, their sales remained much lower than in the same period last year.

The top 100 builders had CNY358.3 billion (USD49.6 billion) of sales in March, up 93 percent from February but down 46 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics from real estate data cruncher China Real Estate Information Corporation.

China Overseas Holdings topped the list, achieving sales of CNY41.2 billion (USD5.7 billion) and setting a new monthly sales record in nearly one year. However, the Hong Kong-based developer’s sales shrank 4 percent from a year earlier.

The great performance of China Overseas was mainly due to a popular project in downtown Shanghai. As the project’s prices were lower than second-hand apartments in the surrounding area, it sold 99 percent of its units on opening day in March, racking up CNY19.7 billion in sales, nearly half of the company’s total that month.

Data from real estate think tank Yihan Consulting are also in line with CRIC statistics. Only seven of the country’s top 50 property developers achieved a decrease in sales in March from February, with the growth rates of most of them being above 50 percent and that of seven of them being more than 100 percent, Yihan data showed.

However, only three of China’s top 50 builders logged a rise in sales in March from a year earlier, with over half of the developers seeing their sales plunging over 50 percent in the period. Sales at leading real estate companies, including Poly Developments and Holdings Group, China Vanke, and China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings, sank over 40 percent.

The real estate market is recovering faster in first-tier cities than second- and third-tier ones, according to CRIC data. In March, new home transactions in first-tier cities soared 147 percent from February, compared with 83 percent in second- and third-tier ones. Moreover, new home transactions in first-tier cities declined at a slower pace last month from a year earlier.

With the effects brought about by favorable policies, the real estate market in core first- and second-tier cities will experience a recovery this year, CRIC believes. However, the transaction volume in third and fourth-tier cities will likely remain sluggish.

In the first three months of the year, sales at China’s top 100 property developers plunged 48 percent from a year earlier, according to CRIC data. Only 20 builders had sales exceeding CNY10 billion in the period, compared with 40 and 47 in the same periods of 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione