Chinese property developers invest in hi-tech industries

Last year, 20 out of 24 developers tracked by JPMorgan Chase, including the top five Chinese developers by market capitalization (Country Garden Holdings, China Vanke, China Evergrande Group, Sunac China Holdings and Poly Real Estate Group), missed their 2018 sales targets, reflecting the bleak outlook in the market, reported China Knowledge. The slow economy is causing Chinese home buyers and investors to postpone their property purchases, resulting in an expected 3.4 percent fall in home sales this year and another 1.5 percent decline for the following year.

In response, developers are now looking to make moves to expand into other hi-tech sectors that are favored by the Chinese government.

Country Garden Holdings has since invested RMB 80 billion ($12 billion) into the robotics sector. China Vanke is entering ventures with tech companies such as Microsoft, SenseTime and Nio. China Evergrande is looking toward electric vehicles, while Sunac China has experimented with the Chinese video streaming market.