Heavily in debt, the former number one of Chinese real estate Evergrande “will certainly be able (…) to repay all types of debt and eliminate risks” in 2023, assured his president. “2023 is a key year for Evergrande” for the company to “assume its corporate responsibility and do everything in its power to ensure delivery of construction projects,” writes its president in an email that AFP said. consulted on Tuesday.
“As long as everyone in Evergrande sticks together, never gives up (and) works hard (…) we will definitely be able to complete (…) deliveries, pay off all kinds of debts and eliminate risks,” he said Hui. The former real estate heavyweight is strangled by debt estimated at around $300 billion in 2021 in a crisis-hit sector in China. It is in talks to refurbish it.
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Evergrande resumed work on 732 construction sites last year and handed over 301,000 housing units to buyers, according to the email. The company has become a symbol of a broader crisis affecting China’s real estate sector, which accounts for about a quarter of its gross domestic product.
The sector has been hit by tougher funding rules and the pandemic, which has brought many promoters to the brink of bankruptcy. Big players in the sector, such as Evergrande, have failed to complete some real estate projects, angering buyers.
Since the liberalization of the housing market in 1998, developers have been able to develop at high speed thanks to bank loans. But their indebtedness has increased significantly and the authorities have decided to end it from 2020. Since then, access to credit for developers has shrunk significantly and demand for real estate has plummeted in China amid a slowdown in economy and restrictions in the face of Covid-19.
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In November, an official document established that Evergrande had sold land for its headquarters in Shenzhen (southeast) for $1 billion. In the same month, Beijing adopted new measures aimed at the “stable and healthy development” of the real estate sector, including credit support for indebted developers, financial support to ensure project completion, and fee-payment loan assistance. deferred for buyers.
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