Evergrande vows to restart 38 stalled property projects by month’s end to defuse China’s mortgage boycott
Evergrande will restart construction on 38 developments by September 30, it said in a statement late Monday, citing Chairman Hui Ka-yan’s weekly staff meetingIt has already resumed building on 668 of the total 706 projects, it saidChina Evergrande GroupBloombergPublished: 12:28pm, 13 Sep, 2022Why you can trust SCMP
The company will restart construction on 38 developments by September 30, it said in a statement late Monday, citing Chairman Hui Ka-yan’s weekly staff meeting. It has already resumed building on 668 of the total 706 projects, it said.
Cash-strapped Chinese developers are facing pressure to complete pre-sold homes after angry buyers nationwide stopped making loan payments. The mortgage boycotts could pose a threat to social stability ahead of a Communist Party congress next month, at which President Xi Jinping is expected to seek a third term.Evergrande is at the centre of a credit crunch that has rippled through China’s property sector and curtailed growth in the world’s second-largest economy. Among its 668 projects that have resumed work, 606 have reached normal construction level, while 62 are in the process of returning to normal and will do so this month, Hui said at the meeting.
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It’s been difficult to assess the scale of the mortgage boycotts since the government in July began censoring crowdsourced documents circulated online. The trend has raised concern that the property crisis could spread to the financial system. Banks face mortgage losses of US$350 billion in a worst-case scenario, S&P Global Ratings has estimated, although lenders posted much smaller overdue loans in the most recent earnings season.