Poly has to fight with its back to the wall in Haidian District.

In 2025, the competition among leading real estate developers in Beijing became even more intense.

According to statistics from CRIC, in the top 10 list of equity sales in the first four months, the difference between the first and the fourth place was only 1.03 billion yuan.

Among them, the competition was the fiercest between the second and the fourth place. For every additional 200 million yuan in sales, the sales ranking would change, which was equivalent to selling a dozen luxury mansions.

Data source: CRIC, tabulated by Future Livable

The four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are the key investment areas for leading real estate developers. Currently, the majority of the best-selling projects in first-tier cities are luxury mansions.

It can be said that having several luxury mansion projects to be sold in the core areas can generally predict the performance of a real estate developer in the next few months.

Furthermore, the ability to acquire land in the core areas and the product development ability for luxury mansions basically determine the status of leading real estate developers in first-tier cities at present.

In the Beijing market this year, Poly is one of the real estate developers with the strongest desire to acquire land in the core areas.

Because Poly Beijing has stockpiled a large number of low-threshold improvement projects in the past three years. Especially in 2024, Poly only had two new projects in Beijing, and the number of marketable projects in its hands is almost exhausted.

As the sales of projects showed signs of weakness, the ranking of Poly Beijing's equity sales declined all the way. It just climbed to the fifth place last year, but quickly dropped to the ninth place in the first four months of this year.

Data source: CRIC, tabulated by Future Livable

Let's first take a look at the main projects currently on sale by Poly.

Poly Yijing Hexu is located in Shunyi. It obtained sales permits twice in April and June 2024 respectively. There are a total of about 746 residential units, and currently 335 units have been signed online. After one year of sales, the sales rate is about 45%. The guiding sales price is 43,000 yuan per square meter, and the actual transaction price is about 36,000 yuan per square meter.

Xingchen Hexu in Shunyi Houshayu was obtained by Beijing Construction Engineering through a lottery in the public auction. Later, Poly joined in the joint development. The project obtained the sales permit in July 2024, and all 270 residential units have been sold out so far. This also marked the beginning of the honeymoon period between Poly and Beijing Construction Engineering.

Poly Jingshan Hexu in Shijingshan obtained the sales permit in September 2023. There are a total of 798 units, and only 439 units have been signed online so far. The sales rate has just reached 55%, and there are still more than 300 units in stock.

Hejin Chengyuan in Daxing has become a completed project after multiple openings from 2020 to 2022. The average price at the opening of the pre - sale period was 61,000 yuan per square meter, and the current transaction price of the completed project is 51,000 yuan per square meter. There is a lot of information about owners' complaints and rights - protection on the Internet.

Daxing Xiyue Xinyu is a shared - ownership housing project. It obtained the sales permit in July 2024, and there is still no online signing information so far. After Poly and Shoukai jointly acquired the land in 2017, Jinhua and China Overseas entered the area one after another and quickly developed two competing projects, Daxing Jinhua Yue and China Overseas Yunxi. These two projects are all - commodity residential projects, and their prices are only 20 - 30% higher than that of Xiyue Xinyu, which makes it difficult to sell Xiyue Xinyu at a price of 29,000 yuan per square meter.

Poly He Guang Xujing opened for sale for the first time in April 2023 and became a completed project in September last year. It obtained the sales permit for 96 completed units, with an average price of about 75,000 yuan per square meter, while the average online - signing price of the pre - sale units before was over 83,000 yuan per square meter. Therefore, there were some protests from the owners.

Poly Tianhui in Chaoyang Dongba obtained the sales permit in September 2023. There are a total of about 820 units, and currently only 30 units are left at the end of the sales period.

Poly Chaoyang Yanghe is the most popular project of Poly in Beijing from last year to now. It contributed nearly a quarter of the annual sales volume. It was well - received and popular, creating an influence and laying a foundation for Poly to continue to invest heavily in Chaoyang.

On February 11 this year, Poly and China Jinhua jointly won the land in Sanjianfang, Chaoyang District, with a total price of 8.7295 billion yuan. After that, Poly and Jinhua each took charge of a plot of land. Poly's project is called Poly Chaoguan Tianjun. Its main selling points are the floor plan and a 100% occupancy rate, which is expected to continue the hot sales of Poly in Chaoyang.

However, the competition for new houses in Chaoyang this year will be more intense than in the past. The Huangshamudian land, which is in a better location than Sanjianfang, has entered the market. The building area is 220,000 square meters, and there are at least 1,000 salable units. There are more than 500 units for sale in Poly Chaoguan Tianjun, more than 700 salable units in Jinhua Manyao, about 370 units in China Overseas Wanjijixu, and there are currently about 2,100 units stockpiled in Chaoyang Shibalidian and Xiaohongmen. Currently, there are nearly 5,000 high - end improvement projects competing directly.

There will be new land entering the market in the future. According to public information, 19 plots of land are planned to be supplied in Chaoyang in 2025, with a building area of 1.8 million square meters. Real estate developers that invest heavily in Chaoyang will face great pressure in sales in the future.

Therefore, Poly must find a safety cushion outside of Chaoyang. And in the whole of Beijing, Haidian is the place where properties can be sold at high prices, with good profits and high sales speed.

Real estate developers such as China Overseas, Greentown, Yuexiu, and China Resources, which pursue scale and are good at developing luxury mansions, have taken the lead in deploying in Haidian and have even acquired more than one project.

In July 2024, Poly and Beijing Construction Engineering jointly won the land in Yongfeng, Haidian, Beijing. This project is Jiahua Tianjun. This was also the only land acquisition of Poly in the public market in Beijing last year.

However, Jiahua Tianjun, which is mainly targeted at the primary improvement market, has not sold well. It obtained the pre - sale permit on New Year's Day this year. There are a total of 852 units, and currently 161 units have been signed online, with a sales rate of 18.9%, which is a failing grade in Haidian. The online - signing amount is 1.387 billion yuan, and there is still a large gap from the land price of 8.901 billion yuan, which needs to be filled by performance.

In order to boost sales, Poly has a strong motivation to continue to increase its investment in Haidian.

On May 20, Poly and Beijing Construction Engineering jointly acquired the "Land Plots 0003 and 0004 of the Urban Village Reconstruction Project in the Banbidian Area, Haidian" at a premium rate of 11.95%, costing 4.545 billion yuan.

From the map, the location of this land is good. It is a little outside the West Fourth Ring Road, and going straight east leads to Wuluju, Cishousi, and Baishiqiao in Haidian.

Location of Poly's Banbidian land plot in Haidian

However, this land has several obvious disadvantages:

There are many planning restrictions. The height limit is 15 meters. The plot ratios of Land Plots 0003 and 0004 are 1.3 and 1.6 respectively. The neighborhood road on the east side needs to be widened to 18 meters, which compresses the actual construction land area. After these factors are combined, the distance between the buildings in the project will be extremely compressed. Eventually, there will probably be densely - built buildings and small - scale garden designs, and the living atmosphere will not be very friendly.

The surrounding environment of the land is poor. There are old residential areas on the west and south sides, and it is adjacent to the Jingmen Railway on the north side. Although this railway is no longer in use at present, the railway line is retained, which causes a separation between the land and the surrounding area, and there is a possibility of freight demand in the future.

There is the Western Suburb Airport directly to the north of the land, and the straight - line distance is less than 3 kilometers. There will definitely be aircraft noise.

Although it also belongs to Haidian, the school resources here cannot be compared with those in Sijiqing, Shucun, or even Gongdesi. In a horizontal comparison within Haidian, it has no resource advantages.

The above points mean that Poly's new project is not a naturally - gifted one that can be easily sold. It requires strong product design capabilities.

Satellite map of Poly's Banbidian land plot in Haidian

When the Banbidian land plot was auctioned, only three real estate developers/consortia participated: Haikai Holdings, the consortium of Poly Development + Beijing Construction Engineering, and the consortium of Beijing Urban Construction + Greentown. This also shows from the side that this land is not a very popular one.

It will be very difficult for Poly to achieve quick results with the Banbidian project.

In terms of positioning and price, there is a contradiction with this land. Its floor price has reached 78,400 yuan per square meter, 6,000 yuan per square meter higher than the floor price of 72,000 yuan per square meter of the Gongdesi land plot. Judging from the land acquisition price, it will have to be sold at least at about 110,000 yuan per square meter in the future, which is undoubtedly a luxury mansion positioning. However, the surrounding environment of the land is relatively poor, and it is difficult to develop the most popular low - density large - flat - floor mansions on the market.

First of all, in terms of price, Poly's Banbidian land plot has already lost. At the same price, buyers can choose the Gongdesi project. If they want to improve the living quality, they can choose Zhenyun and Haiyan in the Zhufang area or Xiangshanyue in the Sijiqing area.

Secondly, the Banbidian project will have a direct competitor in the future. The Baoshan Village land plot in Haidian will be auctioned at the beginning of June. It is also located between the Fourth and Fifth Ring Roads, only two stops away. However, the Baoshan Village land plot has better quality and a better surrounding environment, and its starting price is lower.

Schematic diagram of the location comparison of the two land plots

In terms of products, Poly Beijing has mainly focused on improvement projects in recent years, and several projects with good sales performance are concentrated in Chaoyang District. However, the demand of customers in the eastern and western parts of Beijing is very different, and the high - end luxury mansion market and the primary improvement market are also two different customer groups. The last time Poly developed a luxury mansion in Haidian dates back to 2014, 11 years ago. Compared with that time, the current market environment, products, and even the team have gone through many iterations. For Poly, it is like starting from scratch again.

Whether it can develop a product that stands out under so many unfavorable factors is still in doubt.

In February this year, there was a leadership change at Poly Beijing. Liu Xitao, who had served as the general manager of Poly Beijing for three years, was transferred to Henan, and Li Hongliang, an "old Poly" in his 80s, took over.

Li Hongliang's previous position was the deputy general manager of the Board Office at Poly Development's headquarters, and he had also served as the deputy general manager of Guangzhou Poly Urban Development Co., Ltd. As a senior executive directly dispatched from the group headquarters, he is highly expected.

After taking office, Li Hongliang's first public appearance was at the Jiahua Tianjun project in Haidian. Coupled with Poly's active land acquisition in Haidian this month, Poly has sent a signal of change and a sprint.

In the key position of the marketing director, Jing Fu from the Hebei company replaced the veteran Wang Lin and formed a partnership with Li Hongliang. Jing Fu's previous experience was mainly in the Hebei and Shanxi markets. Whether he can quickly understand the demand of the Beijing market is also a question.

However, according to Poly's current layout in Haidian, the two non - popular projects in Yongfeng and Banbidian actually force Poly to fight a desperate battle.

Next, Poly either continues to compete for land in Haidian to increase the inventory and adjust the portfolio, or it has to develop competitive products and prove itself with solid performance.

(Note: Project data source: publicly available on the official website of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban - Rural Development)