Der alte Kumpel in der Immobilienbranche hat es etwas schwer.

Recently, Poly's Cloud Valley and Residence project in Xi'an was collectively complained about by homeowners due to price cuts through fake "work payment houses" and was finally fined 80,000 yuan.

Actually, Poly also feels very unfairly treated. An official price cut would be protested by earlier homeowners, while price stability would limit sales opportunities.

According to the housing price data of 70 cities released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the prices of new houses in Xi'an have fallen month - on - month for 13 consecutive months, which is the longest period since 2019. In September, the year - on - year decline widened to 5%, the largest decline in more than six years. This decline is only slightly better than that in the almost forgotten city of Hohhot among 35 metropolises and provincial capitals. The price stability of houses in Xi'an ranks second - last.

In view of the objective market situation, Poly has carried out price cuts and special offers to varying degrees in its major projects in Xi'an.

For example, the Poly Tianrui project in Yan'an District, which was highly promoted as very successful in official advertising, offered a special offer package of "10% discount, a gift of 80,000 - yuan home furnishings (Bosch + Hansgrohe) and 3 years of free property management (about 100,000 yuan)" for reservations during the Singles' Day event.

The Poly Tianjun project in the High - tech Development Zone was initially promoted as a "blockbuster with 2.58 billion yuan in sales". Now, there is a 1% discount for paying a deposit and another 1% discount for participating in an event. In addition, parking vouchers and household appliance packages are given away.

In the southern university area of Xi'an, houses were previously sold for 26,000 yuan per square meter. Now, Poly's new project costs less than 14,000 yuan per square meter.

This has greatly angered the earlier homeowners who "bought a house from Poly before". They have given the Xi'an branch of Poly the title "Price backstabber".

Due to the too - rapid price cuts, a large number of Poly homeowners in Xi'an are protesting and "finding" a series of problems in Poly's projects.

The Poly Xinghe Tianhui project in the aerospace base complex of Xi'an is a premium improvement project. Earlier homeowners bought houses for about 23,000 yuan per square meter. Shortly before the handover, they found that the exterior facade and thermal insulation of the project are worse than those of another Poly project in the same area, which is about 2,000 yuan cheaper. The aluminum exterior skin advertised has shrunk, the thermal insulation is made of inexpensive EPS (polystyrene foam boards), and the entrance hall deviates greatly from the advertising description.

More than 400 homeowners of Poly Xinghe Tianhui have sent a collective statement to Poly, sharply criticizing Poly in Xi'an: "The shoddy construction principle destroys the last bit of brand trust in Poly!"

The "Relevant statement of Poly Xinghe Tianhui homeowners in Xi'an to the Shaanxi branch of Poly"

Such cases are not only happening in Xi'an. On a social media platform, a Poly homeowner in Sichuan wrote in a post: "Poly's house handover has once again lowered the bottom line. I inspected the house for a few hundred yuan and identified the problems with the attached labels. Poly removed all the labels (the problems in the cabinets are not completely solved), but nothing was actually corrected."

A Poly homeowner in Chengdu posted a photo of the house handover of his project:

Source: Xiaohongshu

Even in Beijing, the third - strongest city for Poly, there have been protests during the handover of the first "Tian - series" project, Poly Tianhui.

The homeowners say: The entrance gate of the residential area looks like a "public toilet building". The "overall stone exterior skin" has been reduced to small stone slabs and artificial stone paint, which deviates greatly from the advertising description. Inside, there are numerous problems such as empty spots on the walls, numerous sand holes on the ceiling, faulty cabinet doors, scratches on the walls and water stains.

Actually, Poly's problems are not only in price cuts and quality reductions. Since this year, people in the industry have been saying again and again: Poly has changed.

Some homeowners and potential buyers have the same feeling. Poly, which has been working hard on product improvement in recent years, has obviously changed its strategy this year and begins to focus only on performance by strengthening promotion and cost - cutting.

In such a situation, it is inevitable that the company's marketing, product and construction departments will take actions that deviate from the norm under pressure.

Because Poly is under great pressure this year.

In 2023, Poly Development with a total sales of 424.6 billion yuan, an operating sales of 386.34 billion yuan and a self - owned sales of 305.71 billion yuan comprehensively surpassed Country Garden and became the new "industry leader".

For 34 months, Poly has been firmly in the "veteran" position in the eyes of many people as a state - owned enterprise. But actually Poly has been gradually overtaken since the second half of this year.

According to a statistic from CRIC, the difference between Greentown and Poly from January to October is only 3.8 billion yuan in terms of operating sales. In October alone, Greentown (22.61 billion yuan) overtook Poly (19.3 billion yuan).

In terms of self - owned sales, the difference between China Overseas and Poly from January to October is only 1.52 billion yuan. In October alone, China Overseas (17.12 billion yuan) overtook Poly (16.59 billion yuan).

Since the third quarter of this year, Poly's decline has been very obvious.

From January to October this year, the top 100 real estate companies achieved an operating sales of 2,576.66 billion yuan, a year - on - year decline of 16%. The average of the top 3 companies is 16.5%.

Poly Development's operating sales decreased by 20.7% year - on - year during the same period, 4.2 percentage points higher than the average of the top 3 companies.

Without an upswing phase Poly may be completely overtaken by China Overseas and Greentown in the last two months of this year. This could be the reason for Poly's continuous price cuts and quality reductions.

Besides the weaker sales performance compared to the industry in general, Poly also has a problem in its financial reporting. In the third quarter of this year, Poly Development's consolidated net profit turned into a loss, with a monthly loss of 782 million yuan. This is a signal of a deterioration in the financial situation.

In recent years, Poly has been working hard on "cost - cutting". A comparison of the company's reports from the first three quarters of 2025 and 2023 shows that Poly's administrative expenses decreased by 16.7%, R & D costs by 81.1% and financial costs by 15.3%.

Source: Poly Development Q3 Report

Poly Development Holdings' property management company has shown unprecedented strength in reducing labor costs.

From the end of 2021 to the first half of this year, Poly Property's managed area increased from 465 million square meters to 834 million square meters, an increase of 79.3%. But at the same time, the number of employees decreased from 44,415 to 30,310, more than 14,000 people less. It has changed from one full - time employee per 10,500 square meters to one employee per 27,500 square meters. The reduction in labor density has also caused many negative reviews from homeowners.

While other expenses have decreased, Poly's sales expenses have increased.

The R & D costs for products have dropped significantly, and more money is being spent on marketing and sales channels, but Poly's sales have not achieved the corresponding results.

For example, the Chaoguan Tianjun project in Chaoyang District, Beijing, as a key project of the "Tian - series" this year, has gone through all the promotional activities. After the hype, the actual online sales data shows that of the 656 apartments in the two batches on May 23 and August 2, only 101 were sold, corresponding to a sales rate of 15.4%.

Another key project in the Beijing market, the project on Half - slope Street in Haidian District, has made less progress than expected. Half a year has passed since the land acquisition on May 20, and it has not even entered the phase of customer collection.

According to a statistic from CRIC, Poly's ranking in self - owned sales in Beijing from January to October this year has dropped to the 10th place, six places lower than last year.

Poly, which has pushed cost - cutting and promotion to the limit, has still experienced a comprehensive decline in performance and reputation, and its position as the "industry leader" is at risk. One wonders if the company has internally considered whether it is the team or the strategy that is the problem.

This article is from the WeChat account "Future Livable", author: Klein Haus, Großes Haus. 36Kr published it with permission.