(Yicai) Aug. 1 -- China’s top 100 property developers saw their sales shrink more than 13 percent in the first seven months of the year, according to the China Index Academy.

The top 100 builders had CNY2.07 trillion (USD287.6 billion) of sales in the seven months ended yesterday, down 13.3 percent from a year earlier, with the decline widening from 11.8 percent in the first half, according to data released by the CIA yesterday. In July, their sales plunged 18.2 percent from the same period last year.

Only seven of the top 20 property developers reported an increase in sales in the first seven months, Yicai calculated. They are C&D Real Estate, Yuexiu Property, Huafa Properties, China Jinmao Holdings Group, Dongfu Investment Development and Yipin Investment Development under China State Construction Engineering, and Xiamen ITG Real Estate Group.

Among them, sales of Jinamo, Dongfu, and Xiamen ITG jumped 23 percent to 26 percent to CNY61.8 billion (USD8.6 billion), CNY30.7 billion, and CNY23.6 billion, respectively. They ranked ninth, 15th, and 20th by sales value.

Many of the biggest developers performed worse in the first seven months of this year than in the same period of last year. For example, Gemdale and Seazen Group saw their sales shrink over 50 percent in the period, with their ranking dropping to 23rd and 45th from 14th and 20th, respectively.

The only builder with a sales decline of over 40 percent in the first seven months was China Vanke, with sales plunging 44 percent to CNY82.1 billion. Despite that, its sales value was the sixth-highest.

Longfor Group Holdings and Country Garden Holdings saw their sales slump 30 percent and 36 percent to CNY41 billion and CNY23.9 billion, respectively.

Only five real estate developers had sales exceeding CNY100 billion (USD13.9 billion) between January and July, compared with six a year earlier. They are Poly Development and Holdings Group, Greentown China Holdings, China Overseas Property, China Resources Land, and China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings.

China’s residential property transaction volume is expected to continue to fluctuate at a low level this month, with the gap between cities and projects likely to keep intensifying, according to China Real Estate Information Corporation.

Real estate markets in some second-tier Chinese cities will experience an interim recovery, and the market popularity will probably continue rising toward stability, CRIC predicted. However, property projects in core regions near supporting facilities and high-quality ones will remain highly popular.

With changes in the macroeconomic environment and real estate market, more policies are expected to be strengthened, said Liu Shui, corporate research director at the CIA. Stopping the downward trend in the market and regaining stability are still the main targets of these policies, he added.

In the short run, the focus will be on effectively implementing the policies that have already been released, Liu noted.

Editor: Futura Costaglione