According to The Research Report on the Competitiveness of China Real Estate Enterprises issued yesterday by the Development Research Center of the State Council, with the constant adjustment of regulations and controls of the land and real estate finances, real estate enterprises are constantly developing new funding channels. Their capital has expanded rapidly; land purchases are becoming larger and larger. Currently, the largest real estate developer has 45 square kilometers of land reserves.  In many second or third tier cities, it has become increasingly difficult for more and more real estate enterprises to acquire land. Moreover, large-scale trans-regional enterprises often have distinct competitive advantages. In the future, large-scale land development and large-scale expansion of real estate enterprises are expected to dominate the real estate industry.   
 
Country Garden, one of the leading property developers in China, is the largest "landlord" in the country. By the end of this July, the company's total land reserve had reached an astounding 45 million square meters. Its land reserves nearly doubles that of the second largest landholder. But Country Garden real estate primarily focuses on suburban areas of the first, second and third tier cities; therefore their asset prices are relatively low. In contrast, another real estate giant, Vanke owns assets of nearly 50 billion yuan; its asset-liability ratio is 59%. Vanke's land reserves exceeded 15 million square meters in the first half of 2007. They are the first real estate enterprise whose sales surpassed 20 billion yuan. New World China Land's land reserves across the country has reached 17.53 million square meters; Yuexiu has made investments in the real estate industry for 5 years and has maintained assets of 30 billion yuan and a land reserve of 6 million square meters. China Resources Land Limited makes a profit of 600 million HK dollars yearly; its land reserves have also attained 8.199 million square meters. According to the latest R&F bulletin, by July 11, R&F Properties had obtained land reserves of 20.92 million square meters. Trans-regional development, large-scale resource possession, brand effect and financing capacity have become the four core elements of the competitiveness of real estate enterprises.

It is expected that in the next few years, resources such as capital and customers will gradually flow into the stronger real estate enterprises with brand values and that the market share of brand real estate enterprises will further rise. Based on the analysis of the materials of the listed companies with real estate as their main industry in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, Vanke performs best in the evaluation of the competitiveness of the brand values.  Next follows R&F Properties, China Overseas Property, Hopson, New World China Land, Poly Real Estate Group Co., Ltd., Financial Street Holding Co., Ltd., Gemdale, Beijing North Star Company Limited, Forte, China Merchants Property Development Co., Ltd., Beijing Capital Land and Beijing Urban Construction Group Co., Ltd. All of the above have comparatively strong brand competitive advantage.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, September 17, 2007)