Longfor Group sold 2.43 billion yuan of homes in October, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday. That was below the company's monthly average this year and a fraction of the 17.81 billion yuan booked by state-backed China Overseas Land & Investment, whose own October sales fell 4.6% from a year earlier.

The filings, released between Monday and Friday this week, give Hong Kong investors a company-by-company view behind the industry ranking for the first 10 months. They show the biggest sales at China Overseas Land and Greentown China, while privately founded developers including Longfor, Country Garden and Shimao Group sold far smaller amounts at lower prices per square meter.

Longfor and Country Garden sales stay small

Longfor's contracted sales reached 25.57 billion yuan from January through October on 2.795 million square meters of floor area, the company said. That works out to roughly 2.56 billion yuan a month, so October fell short of the run rate. The 289,000 square meters sold in October implies an average price of about 8,400 yuan per square meter, compared with about 9,150 yuan for the year to date, based on the company's figures.

Sales attributable to Longfor's shareholders, which exclude partners' stakes in joint projects, were 1.69 billion yuan in October. The company said revenue from property operations, which include its shopping malls and rental apartments, and from property services came to about 22.70 billion yuan, excluding tax, over the 10 months. That recurring income, 12.17 billion yuan from operations and 10.53 billion yuan from services, is close to the 25.57 billion yuan it raised from selling homes in the same period.

Country Garden reported on Monday that attributable contracted sales were about 2.30 billion yuan in October on about 300,000 square meters. That implies an average of under 7,700 yuan per square meter, the lowest among the developers covered here. The company gave only a single-month figure in its filing.

Shimao Group said it sold about 700 million yuan of property in October at an average 11,599 yuan per square meter, below its 12,209 yuan average for the first 10 months. Its year-to-date total was about 11.20 billion yuan.

China Overseas Land and Greentown sell at higher prices

China Overseas Land said on Wednesday that its contracted sales for January through October rose 5.1% from a year earlier to about 198.84 billion yuan, even as the floor area sold dropped 19.3%. The gap between value and volume means the group is selling fewer but more expensive homes. In October, sales of 17.81 billion yuan on 698,300 square meters imply an average of about 25,500 yuan per square meter, three times Longfor's level.

The company and its subsidiaries generated 13.89 billion yuan of the October total, with joint ventures and associates contributing 1.26 billion yuan and listed affiliate China Overseas Grand Oceans adding 2.65 billion yuan. China Overseas Land also reported subscribed sales of about 8.36 billion yuan at the end of October, which it expects to convert into contracted sales in coming months. It bought no land in October, after acquiring 2.72 million square meters of attributable floor area for about 56.15 billion yuan earlier in the year.

Greentown China said its own projects sold about 9.0 billion yuan in October, a figure that includes subscriptions, at an average of 34,591 yuan per square meter. Contracted sales for the 10 months came to about 90.4 billion yuan, of which 60.8 billion yuan was attributable to the group. Adding its project management business, where Greentown builds and markets homes for other owners, total contracted sales reached about 160.3 billion yuan.

What the numbers say for investors

The figures show a wide gap in scale and pricing. Longfor's ten-month sales are about one-eighth of China Overseas Land's, and China Overseas Land is still adding land, with 2.72 million square meters bought this year, plus a 184,931-square-meter parcel in Lanzhou acquired by China Overseas Grand Oceans in October.

For holders of developers' shares and bonds in Hong Kong, the monthly filings are the most direct signal of cash coming in before full-year results. Longfor's recurring rental and service income gives it a second source of cash that pure homebuilders lack. China Vanke, which did not appear among this week's Hong Kong filings reviewed here, reported a third-quarter loss as contract sales halved.

The next test is November, including whether China Overseas Land converts its 8.36 billion yuan of subscriptions. If they follow this year's pattern, the companies will file November figures in early December.