The massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake which devastated a wide area of southwest China on Monday afternoon won't likely impact greatly operations of major real estate developers, said industry players and analysts.

"Generally, daily business operations of all A-share listed property developers are expected to remain normal after the quake as none of them have large operations in the worst affected areas,'' said Wei Bo, a property analyst at Central China Securities Co. "For those who have projects in Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an and Wuhan, such as Vanke, Gemdale and Poly, their portfolios are also rather small, all less than 10 percent.''

Su Xuejing, an industry analyst at Changjiang Securities Co, said the publicly-listed property firms won't be affected by the disaster as there is basically no real estate market in the quake-hit areas.

The quake, one of the worst to hit China in decades, has killed more than 12,000 people.

Wang Shi, chairman of Shenzhen-listed China Vanke Corp said the firm has offices in Chengdu and Wuhan while its Xi'an and Chongqing units are not yet officially open.

Guoxing Rongda Real Estate Co Ltd, also listed in Shenzhen, said yesterday its operations were unaffected though the firm is registered in Deyang in the province.

Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Forte Land Co Ltd said its Chongqing and Xi'an units haven't been affected. Shanghai Greenland Group, which has properties in the province, said no losses have been reported.

(Shanghai Daily May 14, 2008)