In recent times, a phenomenon has emerged in various parts of China where state-owned enterprises are concentrating on listing and selling a large number of properties. This is no longer an isolated incident of individual enterprise behavior but rather a large-scale asset cleanup driven by debt. From prime locations in Beijing’s Xicheng District to residential neighborhoods in fourth-tier cities, the selling behavior of state-owned enterprises not only reflects their significant liquidity pressure but also sends a strong signal to the market that property prices have not yet bottomed out.
Recently, mainland state-owned enterprises have been listing their properties in clusters, such as the state-owned enterprise Tianheng Group under the Beijing Xicheng District State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which has listed 111 properties for sale.
Information from the Beijing Property Exchange shows that Tianheng Real Estate Group’s subsidiary is listing 111 properties for sale, with base prices ranging from 1.06 million yuan to 13.97 million yuan, totaling over 330 million yuan. These properties are all located in Beijing, covering various districts such as Xicheng, Haidian, Chaoyang, Daxing, Shijingshan, Fangshan, and Fengtai.
Among these properties, the highest-priced one is a residential unit at 3 Floor 2 Door 501, Dahonglu Chang Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, with a listing price of 13.9689 million yuan.
Data from a second-hand housing platform shows that the average listing price per square meter in this area was around 154,000 yuan in September, a 41% decrease in price over the past three months.
Beijing’s Xicheng District is one of the oldest and most politically and culturally significant core districts in Beijing. It is very close to the administrative, political, and cultural core areas of Beijing. The proximity to top-tier educational resources in the area has enabled property prices to remain high in the long term with strong liquidity.
According to a report by China Real Estate Network, sources close to the enterprise mentioned that these properties owned by Tianheng Group are either leftover properties from development projects or rental properties that are now being sold to optimize asset structure and alleviate liquidity pressure needs.
“These are ‘idle assets’ that can be sold to recoup a substantial amount of funds at once while avoiding greater risks of devaluation,” said an individual involved in the auction process.
Tianheng Group, formerly established in 1994 as Beijing Xicheng City Construction and Development Group with a registered capital of 11 billion yuan, is under the Beijing Xicheng District State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
In the first half of this year, Tianheng Group’s operating income was 670 million yuan, a 13.4% year-on-year decrease, significantly larger than the decrease from the peak of 13.2 billion yuan in 2021; the net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of 390 million yuan, compared to a loss of 5.07 billion yuan last year; and the asset-liability ratio rose to 83.5%.
The main reasons for the losses were inventory impairment and asset impairment losses from joint venture enterprises, as well as early-stage investments in urban renewal projects. In 2024, following arrangements from higher authorities, Tianheng Group completely withdrew from real estate development.
According to a credit rating report by United Credit Ratings, Tianheng Group’s sales are mainly concentrated in Beijing and Chengdu. The sales amount in 2024 was 2.58 billion yuan, but in the first half of 2025, it was only 710 million yuan.
Furthermore, China Nuclear Industry Construction Limited is also selling three residential properties in Jinguyan Times, located in Changping District, Beijing, with each unit priced around 3 million yuan and an area of over 90 square meters.
In addition, China Nuclear Industry Construction Limited is concentrating on selling 68 residential properties in a fourth-tier town in Fuping Town, Wafangdian City, Dalian. These properties are all located in the Meijun community with a price of about 3,500 yuan per square meter.
Data from second-hand property transactions shows that the average listing price in Meijun community in Fuping Town was around 4,500 yuan per square meter in September. A second-hand house of 92.6 square meters is sold for approximately 545,000 yuan. This indicates that China Nuclear Industry Construction is selling these properties at prices below the market rate.
These phenomena also reflect the trend of some state-owned enterprises and central enterprises moving towards “de-real estate-ification”.
In the property sale information disclosed by the Beijing Property Exchange, the highest-listed property is being offered by China Aviation Settlement Limited Liability Company, which is selling a building in Chaoyang District, Beijing – the China Aviation Settlement Center Building, with a base price of 479 million yuan, with the information disclosure period from September 26 to October 10.
The data shows that the property at 12 Hexibeili, Chaoyang District, Beijing, belonging to China Aviation Settlement Limited Liability Company, is an office building with 15 floors above ground, one floor below ground, built in 1997, and currently vacant.
This is not the first time this building has been put up for sale. One month ago, China Aviation Settlement Company listed this property for 569 million yuan, but as no buyer was found, they have reduced the price by 90 million yuan in a subsequent listing.
Another large-scale property sale is being carried out by Chengdu Railway Xingda Construction Company, which has listed 48 residential properties in Chengxianda New World, Shifu, Shifang City, Sichuan, with a base price of 5.9748 million yuan, with the information disclosure period ending on September 28.
Furthermore, Nanjing Changjiang Oil Transportation Real Estate Co., Ltd. is selling 36 properties and parking spaces, all located in the Jingdian International Building in Nanjing. Nanjing Changjiang Oil Transportation Real Estate Co., Ltd. is under the China Merchants Group.
It is worth noting that this trend of concentrated property sales is spreading across several provinces and cities. In places like Guangzhou and Shandong, multiple state-owned enterprises are focusing on selling properties.
The Guangzhou Property Exchange shows that Guangzhou Hongmian Modern Industrial Development Co., Ltd. is listing 17 residential properties for sale at once, Guangzhou Airport Construction Investment Group is selling around 60 residential houses, Guangzhou Metro Group is listing 26 properties for sale, and Foshan Nanhai Duobao Power Equipment Installation Co., Ltd. is ditching 79 parking spaces.
The Shandong Property Exchange Center website shows that state-owned companies in Yantai, Liaocheng, Zibo, and other places are listing properties, shops, and parking spaces for transfer, with the numbers exceeding hundreds, and the total listing amount in the millions.
The report mentions that this is not simply an “individual behavior” of a single company but a debt-driven asset dump, with its underlying signal far more significant than mere property sales.
A business analyst noted that the concentrated “property sales” by local state-owned enterprises serve the dual purpose of revitalizing inefficient and idle assets to prevent the devaluation of state-owned assets and generating cash flow to alleviate liquidity pressure. With the real estate market downturn and the overlapping tasks of local finance and urban investment platforms in debt conversion, short-term debt repayment pressures have increased sharply.
This is part of the market clearing process. However, suddenly flooding the market with hundreds or thousands of “official housing sources” in the current context of a continuously rising inventory in the second-hand housing market is likely to impact the market significantly.
Financial blogger “Tom” remarked that with falling house prices showing no signs of bottoming out, there is no need to hold onto national flags. In the future, state-owned enterprises leading in slashing prices will increase. Their selling behavior has already proven that they do not believe housing prices have hit bottom in 2025 and are willing to massively reduce prices to offload properties. In other words, the authorities in China do not see value in housing in first-tier cities.
The actions of state-owned enterprises selling off properties are in line with the latest real estate data, highlighting the chill in the market.
On October 1st, the China Real Estate Index Institute released data showing that the average price of new residential properties in 100 cities nationwide in September was 16,926 yuan per square meter, while second-hand residential properties averaged 13,381 yuan per square meter, with a 0.74% decline on a monthly basis and a 7.38% decline year-on-year.
According to the Daily Economic News, as of September, second-hand housing prices in a hundred cities had been declining for 41 consecutive months; in the third quarter, second-hand housing prices had fallen by a cumulative 2.26%, expanding by 0.14 percentage points compared to the second quarter; and in the first three quarters, second-hand housing prices had fallen by 5.79% in the hundred cities.
Cao Jingjing, General Manager of the Index Research Department at the China Real Estate Index Institute, mentioned that with the impact of a high volume of listings on the second-hand housing market, a short-term trend of “price for volume” may continue.
Third and fourth-tier representative cities are still struggling with destocking efforts. In September, the prices of new residential properties fell by 0.35% on a monthly basis and 1.30% year-on-year, with a cumulative decline of 1.23% in the first nine months, indicating that “price reduction for sales volume” remains the main destocking strategy for the majority of projects.