China’s top 100 property developers spent RMB 783.8 billion ($110 billion) on land purchases in the first 10 months of 2025, up 26.4% year-on-year, as private developers showed tentative signs of recovery after years of retreat, according to data released Saturday by the China Index Academy, reports Caixin. While central and local state-owned enterprises (SOEs) continued to dominate land acquisitions, 18 private developers made the top-100 list by land spending—up from 10 at the end of 2024. Their share of total land purchases rose to 12.4%, a 4.6 percentage-point increase from a year earlier.
Private developers, largely sidelined since 2021 by tightening credit, collapsing sales, and mounting debt, are slowly returning to the market. Among them is Hangzhou Binjiang Real Estate Group Co. Ltd., which ranked seventh in land spending (RMB 34.7 billion) and 11th in land area acquired, despite placing only 13th and 19th in sales revenue and area, respectively.
Another rising private player is Sichuan Bontop Investment Group Co. Ltd., a Chengdu-based developer founded in 2007. Though not yet among China’s top 100 developers by sales, Bontop ranked 16th in land spending and sixth nationwide in land area acquired—RMB 88 billion and 1.89 million square meters—ranking first among private developers by land area.