China’s real estate giant Country Garden’s latest financial report shows that, as of the end of June 2025, its overdue debt amounted to 141.978 billion yuan, with an additional 44.2 billion yuan of debt facing the risk of early repayment, and a sharp increase in related legal cases. Once a leading real estate company in China, Country Garden is now deeply mired in a liquidity crisis.
On August 31, Country Garden Group (referred to as “Country Garden”) released its latest announcement disclosing that as of the end of June 2025, there were as many as 344 pending lawsuits and arbitration cases involving amounts exceeding 50 million yuan within the company’s consolidation scope, with a cumulative amount of about 46.4 billion yuan.
Country Garden’s statistics show that as of the end of June, the total amount of overdue debt within its consolidation scope reached 141.978 billion yuan.
At the same time, there is also 44.205 billion yuan of debt within the consolidation scope that may be required for early repayment by creditors due to the triggering of cross-default clauses, further intensifying the company’s liquidity pressure.
Financial data shows that Country Garden currently has 9 outstanding bonds including H19 Bi Di 3, H20 Bi Di 3, H20 Bi Di 4, H1 Bi Di 01, H1 Bi Di 02, H1 Bi Di 03, H1 Bi Di 04, 22 Country Garden MTN001, and 22 Country Garden MTN002, with a total balance of 12.179 billion yuan.
As of the end of June, the total interest-bearing debt of Country Garden amounted to 1,029.32 billion yuan, a slight increase of 0.32% compared to the previous year. Among them, the short-term interest-bearing debt reached a staggering 790.99 billion yuan, accounting for 76.85% of the interest-bearing debt, posing immense short-term repayment pressure.
Meanwhile, the scale of various restricted assets at the end of the period amounted to 104.238 billion yuan, accounting for 123.48% of the net assets at the end of 2024.
In terms of cash flow, the balance of monetary funds as of the end of June was 13.95 billion yuan, but a substantial amount of 12.95 billion yuan was restricted, accounting for 92.83%. Only about 1 billion yuan of funds are freely available, far from sufficient to cope with the huge debt pressure.
According to documents submitted by Country Garden to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on August 29, the company recorded a loss of 19.08 billion yuan in the first half of 2025, a 49% increase compared to the same period last year. Country Garden stated that the loss was mainly due to the continued downturn in the real estate industry, which led to the inability of property sales gross profit to cover operating expenses. Additionally, the company made further provisions for asset impairment.
Country Garden’s financial plight can be traced back to the debt crisis that erupted in September 2022. At that time, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Country Garden’s credit rating from “BB+” to “BB,” following which Country Garden applied for the withdrawal of the rating. In August 2023, Moody’s further downgraded the company’s rating from Ba3 to B1 (non-investment grade). In the same month, Country Garden failed to pay interest on two bonds totaling 22.5 million US dollars on time.
Country Garden’s recent performance has all shown losses. The company posted a pre-tax loss of 167.3 billion yuan for the full year of 2023 and a pre-tax loss of 10.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2024. Despite narrowing the loss in 2024, the first half of 2025 saw a further increase in losses to 19.08 billion yuan.
Country Garden’s plight is not an isolated case but a microcosm of the overall sluggishness in the Chinese real estate market. Data released by the China Index Research Institute and the Kele Ray Research Center in recent days shows that from January to August 2025, the total sales of the top 100 real estate companies in China decreased by 13.3% year-on-year. Sales of companies in different tiers have all seen varying degrees of decline, with the average sales of the top ten real estate companies at 114.5 billion yuan, a 12.1% decrease year-on-year.
It is widely believed in the industry that Country Garden’s operational losses and debt crisis highlight the immense pressure facing the company. Country Garden’s pre-sold housing units are about four times that of Evergrande, and its potential default impact may far exceed Evergrande’s debt crisis. The continued downturn in the Chinese real estate industry, coupled with overall weak sales and lack of market confidence, further exacerbates the survival dilemma of real estate companies.