Xi'an's real estate sector is witnessing a wave of listings on the capital market, marking a significant shift from traditional property development to financialization. A growing number of property projects, spanning industrial parks, commercial spaces, and logistics facilities, are being transformed into tradable financial products, reflecting a broader trend in China's evolving real estate investment landscape.

The "Kaiyuan Securities - Xi'an Qujiang Creative Valley Holding Property Asset-Backed Special Plan," also known as the "Qujiang Creative Valley Project," has recently had its status updated to "feedback provided" on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's bond project information platform. With a proposed issuance size of 2.5 billion yuan, the plan is managed by Kaiyuan Securities, with Xi'an Qujiang Financial Control Industrial Investment (Group) Co., Ltd. serving as the original rights holder.

Located in the Qujiang QCIC area and adjacent to Metro Lines 5 and 8, the project boasts a total construction area of approximately 527,000 square meters. It integrates three core sectors: headquarters-grade offices, cultural and creative offices, and cultural and creative commerce, complemented by cultural exhibition spaces and public service facilities. Phase one opened at the end of 2018, with full operations commencing in August 2020, marking over seven years of operation to date.

Prior to this, the "Xi'an Jingfa Innovation Industrial Park Holding Property ABS" was officially issued at the beginning of the year, with a scale of 141 million yuan. Additionally, the Guotai Haitong Sasseur Commercial REIT, backed by the Sasseur (Xi'an) Outlet, was listed on the exchange in June. The Ping An Xi'an Hi-Tech Industrial Park REITs received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission in mid-August. Furthermore, the Harvest JD Logistics REIT is in the process of applying for an expansion to include Xi'an warehouse and logistics assets in its portfolio.

The quality of the Qujiang Creative Valley project's assets is a key focus for the market. The project features a unique "High Line Park" aerial corridor suspended at a height of approximately 17 meters, connecting multiple buildings to form Xi'an's only three-dimensional creative block. Its business format covers fashion retail, lifestyle services, international cuisine, cinema and entertainment, and family activities, and it attracted over 30% first-entry brands at its opening.

The tenant structure includes several enterprises such as Huashang Media, JZFZ Architectural Design, Atour Hotel, and Xingyi Space. Its core cultural space, the West Live Performance, is a multifunctional theater with approximately 400 removable seats, hosting concerts, plays, and family shows throughout the year.

Originally jointly developed by Qujiang Cultural Industry Group and Xi'an Vanke, the project benefited from Vanke's mature commercial operation experience and brand resources, quickly establishing it as a popular destination in eastern Xi'an. However, according to public information, Vanke completed its exit at the end of 2024. Currently, the original rights holder is Xi'an Qujiang Financial Control Industrial, with a proposed issuance size of 2.5 billion yuan. For state-owned assets, promoting securitization after full takeover is an inherent requirement to revitalize existing assets and a necessary choice in response to changes in the external financing environment.

This year has seen multiple Xi'an property projects make progress in REITs and asset-backed special plans. In February 2026, the "Xi'an Jingfa Innovation Industrial Park Holding Property Asset-Backed Special Plan" was successfully issued on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The issuing entity was Xi'an Jingkai Industrial Park Development Group Co., Ltd., with a scale of 141 million yuan, marking the first inter-institutional REITs for a state-owned enterprise in Shaanxi Province and the entire Northwest region. The underlying assets are standard factory buildings totaling approximately 35,000 square meters.

In June, the Guotai Haitong Sasseur Commercial REIT was listed, with the Sasseur (Xi'an) Outlet as its underlying asset. This outlet is the largest comprehensive outlet in Northwest China, operating since September 2017 for nearly nine years, with full-year sales reaching 2.791 billion yuan in 2025, consistently ranking first among Northwest outlets. Public data indicates the outlet's overall valuation is 5.028 billion yuan, with total raised funds of approximately 5.531 billion yuan.

In mid-August, the Ping An Xi'an Hi-Tech Industrial Park REITs received approval from the CSRC, becoming the first local industrial park public REITs in Shaanxi Province. Its underlying assets consist of the Software New City Software R&D Base Phase II project, comprising 13 buildings with a total construction area of 325,000 square meters and a planned fundraising scale of 1.295 billion yuan. The Software New City, home to the assets, is a core cluster for Xi'an's software and information technology services, operating for over eight years and hosting industry leaders like Alibaba's Silk Road headquarters, Ant Technology, iFlytek, and Yeahmobi.

Additionally, the Harvest JD Logistics REIT is applying to expand by acquiring two "Asia One Intelligent Parks" in Xi'an and Hefei as underlying assets, with a combined construction area of about 250,000 square meters and a target raise of approximately 1.051 billion yuan. The Xi'an project, known as JD Northwest E-commerce Business Center, is located in Xi'an Chanba International Port. If completed, the REIT's underlying property count would increase from three to five, covering the western, southwestern, central, northern, and eastern regions of China.

From industrial parks and commercial properties to warehouse logistics, Xi'an's real estate projects are accelerating their path to the capital market, forming a diversified and multi-tiered tool matrix. This dense wave of securitization is not an isolated event but a microcosm of China's broader move toward a more structured and systematic real estate asset securitization market. The market currently has a clear hierarchical structure: the basic layer consists of Pre-REITs and private equity real estate funds for early asset cultivation; the middle layer includes holding-type property ABS for institutional investors with lower entry barriers; and the top layer is public REITs, which require clear property rights, stable cash flows, and are open to public investors.

This structure is clearly reflected in Xi'an: the Xi'an Jingfa Innovation Industrial Park ABS represents inter-institutional REITs, the Ping An Xi'an Hi-Tech Industrial Park REIT is a public REITs example, and the Qujiang Creative Valley project is currently in the inter-institutional REITs phase, potentially applying for public REITs in the future. For enterprises holding substantial property assets in Xi'an, securitization transforms illiquid real estate into tradable financial products, enabling market-based revaluation of asset values. In this process, investors focus not on the issuer's credit rating but on whether the underlying asset's operational cash flow is stable and sustainable.

This provides a pathway for asset holders to transition from "selling land" to "selling asset income rights." When real estate assets can exit through REITs, the "investment-financing-management-exit" loop is completed, and the path from incremental expansion to stock operation becomes clearer. For holders, this achieves both asset deconsolidation and debt reduction while retaining operational and management rights.

In December 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission released a revised list for REITs project industry scope, for the first time including commercial office facilities and urban renewal facilities as independent asset categories, and adding sports venues, commercial-tourism-sports-culture-health complexes, and four-star and above hotels to the consumer infrastructure category. This has opened securitization channels for high-quality assets like office buildings and commercial complexes in city centers.

In terms of project reserves, in April, Xi'an organized 14 high-quality state-owned enterprises from city and district levels to visit the Shanghai Stock Exchange to discuss the first batch of REITs, CMBS, and ABS reserve projects, with a total planned fundraising scale exceeding 21.7 billion yuan, providing a sufficient project pool for future issuances. With the deepening of commercial real estate REITs trials and the continuous improvement of institutional REITs systems, Xi'an is expected to achieve securitization breakthroughs in multiple areas including industrial parks, commercial properties, warehousing and logistics, and affordable rental housing.