Chinese builders hit by soaring debt and weak sales

Chinese property developers are facing a double whammy of worsening credit quality and slower sales growth as, despite the trade spat with the US, regulators maintain their cooling measures.

After Hong Kong-listed Chinese homebuilders published their mid-year results last month, FinanceAsia finds that nearly all of them reported higher net gearing ratios compared to the beginning of the year.

Sunac China, the country’s most indebted property developer, said that its net debt-to-equity ratio rose 45 percentage points to 262% as of the end of June. Guangzhou RF Properties was close behind with a net gearing ratio of 241%, up 36 percentage points...