China property bonds recover on offshore debt sales

Bonds issued by Chinese property developers began to recover due to a record US$6.8 billion in offshore debt sales which increased market confidence in the Chinese real estate sector, Bloomberg reported. Analysts say that falling prices have so far been offset by sustained transaction volumes. The US$6.8 billion in bond sales is more than four times greater that the previous record of US$1.68 billion issued in 2007. Of eight dollar bond issues sold between January and June, seven recovered at least 75% of their losses from their worst first half in two years. Profitability is on the increase as slowing house-price growth eases concerns that Beijing will take further steps to restrain the market: Agile Property Holdings (3383.HK), for example, posted a five-fold increase in profits in H1.