After more than two decades of rapid development, the real estate industry is entering the "inventory era." How to adapt and transcend cycles in the second half of new urbanization tests every property developer's strategic choices and execution capabilities.
China Jinmao, which has been deeply cultivating the industry for many years, has found a unique approach with "Jinmao characteristics": driving inventory consumption through incremental development during the real estate adjustment period, accelerating capital return through extreme efficiency, and consolidating market position through product upgrades. Through six years of planning across two cycles, the company has achieved a development blueprint from "surviving" to "thriving" and "excelling."
In the first half of this year, China Jinmao steadily delivered on multiple financial metrics. During the period, the company achieved attributable net profit of RMB 1.09 billion, up 8% year-on-year; excluding fair value gains and losses from investment properties, attributable net profit reached RMB 1.123 billion; gross margin was 16% in the first half, with the development segment's gross margin improving by 1 percentage point compared to the same period last year.
Industry observers view China Jinmao as one of the property developers with the most prominent strategic adjustments and most significant performance improvements in recent years. Through "standard-setting" in investment, products, operations, and other aspects, it is gradually developing into an industry "versatile player" and "top performer." During the critical period of real estate "stabilization and recovery," it provides an excellent example of corporate cycle navigation.
**Profit Improvement Validates Strategic Feasibility**
Real estate developers in 2025 remain in a period of deep performance adjustment.
Institutional statistics show that among 286 property companies that have disclosed first-half results, 89 companies reported negative net profits, with combined losses exceeding RMB 100 billion. Many developers remain trapped in declining sales and significant asset impairments.
However, market consolidation periods reveal corporate true colors, and some companies have delivered impressive results against the trend this year. China Jinmao is a typical example. In the first half of 2025, China Jinmao achieved 14% year-on-year revenue growth; attributable net profit grew 8% year-on-year; gross profit increased 14% year-on-year.
This positive interim report validates the feasibility of China Jinmao's new strategy.
Since last year, this established developer has made frequent new moves, not only continuously refreshing its product lines but also frequently appearing in land auctions, acquiring quality plots in core cities, and continuously improving project operation speed, showing clear transformation and enterprising spirit.
Upon closer examination, China Jinmao's profit breakthrough strategy has three components. First is extreme "incremental optimization" - while maintaining investment baselines, increasing acquisition of high-profit quality projects, improving project operational efficiency, and accelerating capital return. Through quality projects achieving "success with each development" and combining good products, good operations, and good efficiency to jointly drive overall gross margin improvement.
Second is extreme cost and expense control. In the first half of this year, China Jinmao continued "expense control," with sales and administrative expenses continuing to decline year-on-year, creating room for profit improvement.
While "increasing revenue and reducing expenditure," China Jinmao has not forgotten to consolidate its "second growth curve," creating new profit growth drivers. During the period, China Jinmao focused on development business as its core while concentrating on premium holdings, quality services, and construction technology to improve overall gross margins. In the holding business segment, retail commercial and hotel operations maintained stable performance, with related rental income and revenue growing steadily.
If China Jinmao continues this pace, the company is expected to fundamentally improve its financial statements within the next two to three years.
With profitability steadily improving, China Jinmao's current sales also showed impressive performance. According to interim report data, the group's contracted sales reached RMB 53.4 billion in the first half, up 20% year-on-year, ranking in the top ten for the first time and being one of the few developers with counter-trend sales growth.
Good sales are supported by good products. Since launching four new product series, Jinmao has brought 13 Fu series, 7 Pu series, 4 Man series, and 6 Tang series projects to market, implementing a "good house" standard throughout the entire cycle from design to delivery in residential development. Leveraging core competitiveness in construction technology, optimizing supporting facilities, and improving services, the "Gold, Jade, Full, Tang" four product lines provide full-cycle high-quality living experiences.
The market has voted positively for China Jinmao's product capabilities. In the first half, multiple projects from the "Gold, Jade, Full, Tang" four product lines sold out on opening. Shanghai Runyun Jinmao Mansion sold out on opening day; Changsha Xiangjiang Jinmao Mansion's 114 units sold out on opening, becoming Changsha's single-project sales champion in June; Pu series representative Xi'an Puyi Oriental achieved RMB 1.3 billion in lottery sales; Man series representative Beijing Jinmao Manyao has remained the champion in Chaoyang District's regular housing online contract registrations since opening; Tang series project Chengdu Dongcheng Jinmao Xiaotang achieved six consecutive sellouts in the first half, becoming a phenomenal hot property.
With real estate scale reaching its ceiling but improvement demand harboring enormous potential, China Jinmao's product premium capability continues to improve, with average residential contract unit price of RMB 26,000 per square meter, representing growth of 18.2% and 24% compared to 2024 and 2023 respectively, firmly occupying the high-end improvement market.
**Quality New Projects Show Independent Performance**
In Jinmao's current development approach, optimizing incremental and revitalizing inventory is paramount, aligning with current industry and policy development trends. In recent years, central and local governments have optimized land supply by offering high-quality plots to attract developers while introducing inventory revitalization policies to provide space for companies to digest "historical burdens."
China Jinmao has clear strategic planning and strong execution capabilities. Since last year, China Jinmao's multiple rounds of investment and operational moves have been on the path of resource repositioning and structural adjustment.
Entering 2025, China Jinmao continued its efforts with more precise and active investment pace. In the first half, based on "invest well and invest sufficiently" strategic arrangements, Jinmao acquired 16 quality projects with total land payments of RMB 49.2 billion, all located in tier-1 and tier-2 cities. Investment in Beijing and Shanghai, two strategic deep-cultivation cities, totaled RMB 32.4 billion, accounting for 66% of total investment, continuously supporting resource repositioning.
Extending the timeframe to the first eight months, China Jinmao's investment moves were equally impressive. According to China Index Academy data, China Jinmao's full-caliber new saleable value reached RMB 80.3 billion in the first eight months of this year, ranking fourth in the industry, with equity new saleable value reaching RMB 45.5 billion.
Regarding this year's land acquisition pace, China Jinmao Senior Vice President Zhang Hui stated that from the supply side in the first half, governments generally offered plots with more central locations and better quality. From the demand side, developers' land acquisition strategies and investment priorities were highly convergent, leading to very intense competition for "good plots" in core tier-1 and tier-2 cities.
Under intense land auction environments, China Jinmao prioritizes risk prevention, ensuring investment safety while increasing acquisition of land in core cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chengdu, achieving resource "restocking" in these key strategic cities.
Management revealed that as of the first half, Jinmao's land reserve quality further improved, with 69% of unsold saleable value located in economically developed regions like North and East China, up 6 percentage points from year-end 2024, and tier-1 city unsold saleable value proportion increased 9 percentage points from year-end 2024.
Focusing on high-tier cities for increased land acquisition intensity has inherent logic. On one hand, current industry improvement demand continues to release, and this investment characteristic can match improvement demand in the new cycle. On the other hand, through acquiring good land and optimizing incremental development, Jinmao can drive overall profitability improvement through new project momentum.
Besides focusing on good cities and good plots for investment, China Jinmao's new project development pace has also improved synchronously. According to management, projects newly acquired by the company since 2024 average only 4.8 months from acquisition to first launch, not only all meeting the internal control standard of 6-month first launch after land acquisition, but also achieving an average first-launch sell-through rate of 81%, truly realizing "quick launch, good launch."
Taking specific projects as examples, in 2025, Beijing Jinmao Puyi Fengyi project completed its first launch just 3 months after land acquisition, with hot sales of RMB 1.8 billion, becoming a volume and price benchmark in Fengtai District. Projects like Chengdu Dongcheng Jinmao Xiaotang, Changsha Xiangjiang Jinmao Mansion, and Chongqing Jinmao Puyin Jinkai achieved positive operating cash flow within 6 months of land acquisition, with overall operational efficiency gradually improving.
New projects' profitability also exceeded expectations. Management stated that compared to investment feasibility reports, China Jinmao's newly acquired projects since 2024 achieved 132% first-launch subscription fulfillment and 104% first-launch price fulfillment. "The 16 projects newly acquired in the first half achieved dual excellence in volume and price, showing independent performance in the market. As these projects gradually generate returns, they will drive overall company gross margin improvement."
While optimizing incremental development, China Jinmao is also accelerating inventory revitalization with quantifiable targets. This year marks the first year of its "Endeavor Plan," targeting disposal of 35% of inventory resources for the full year through various methods including planning adjustments, old property renovation, and bulk asset disposal. Through these major initiatives, China Jinmao is expected to comprehensively achieve resource repositioning and build a solid foundation for navigating industry cycles.
**Six-Year Development Plan with Clear Path**
Unlike many current developers "crossing the river by feeling stones" or passively waiting for policy stimulus support, today's China Jinmao is clarifying its multi-year development plan with strong subjective initiative, clear paths, and high achievability.
Specifically, Jinmao will use three years (2025-2027) to complete renewal and achieve "thriving," then use another three years (2028-2030) to achieve "excelling." Currently, the group is in the critical stage of "Renewal Jinmao," aiming to digest 80% of inventory issues in the next three years, comprehensively repair balance sheets and income statements, and be first to show independent performance.
China Jinmao Chairman Tao Tianhai stated that specifically for the second half of 2025, the company will focus on "three accelerations and one emphasis." The three accelerations include accelerating new project sell-through, accelerating inventory resource revitalization, and accelerating second curve development to build future-oriented competitiveness; the emphasis is on controlling risk hazards given the industry's continued deep adjustment.
Looking at future industry development space, Tao Tianhai believes opportunities will outweigh challenges for quality enterprises.
He stated that the real estate market is still in the process of bottoming out and building a foundation, market stabilization requires time, while differentiation between cities and developers continues to intensify. Industry competitive landscape will accelerate toward "oligopoly competition," with leading developers' market share continuously rising. In the future, China's real estate will remain a massive industry, and surviving companies will have more development opportunities.
To date, China Jinmao's reforms and practices have fully proven that achieving independent market performance through product leadership is feasible, driving organizational capability iteration and upgrade through successful project operations is feasible, and achieving three-year renewal through optimizing incremental and revitalizing inventory is feasible. This strengthens management's confidence and determination for future healthy development.
Long-term, China Jinmao will consolidate its premium genes, responding to market demand through good houses, good communities, and good products to build core competitiveness. Targeting the national "good house" development strategy, China Jinmao proposes a "1234" product strategy, relying on the Gold, Jade, Full, Tang four product lines to provide full-cycle living experiences and build industry product benchmarks from product design and lean construction to quality delivery.
Meanwhile, while maintaining its city operator positioning, China Jinmao will continue deepening business connotations, persisting with high-quality development as its core, strengthening "green health, smart technology" value labels, further focusing on developing premium holdings, quality services, and construction technology businesses, strengthening service value-add and efficiency improvement, and accelerating cultivation of "second curve" business competitiveness.
Industry analysts believe China Jinmao has the resources and capability to achieve its "six-year development plan." Firmly occupying the high-end improvement market, comprehensively achieving resource repositioning, maintaining stable financial position, and building new growth drivers through holding businesses will help Jinmao become one of the few companies in the industry to successfully navigate new real estate cycle development paths and achieve truly sustainable growth.