Country Garden nears full exit from Australia after final estate sale
Embattled Chinese housing giant Country Garden has nearly completed its exit from Australia after the sale of its last remaining estate, Wilton Greens, to another Chinese developer, 11 years after it first entered the market.
Country Garden, which operates locally as Risland Australia, put the 330-hectare, undeveloped portion of the 364-hectare south-western Sydney estate up for sale last August.
While pricing remains confidential, sources close to the Wilton Greens deal indicated it sold for about $240 million.
Risland confirmed the divestment first reported by the South China Morning Post, but said it had not completely exited from operating in Australia. The reported buyer was Avantaus, another Chinese developer. Risland said it would proceed with developing its stage one lots. It also said it would retain its stage two lots, which have yet to receive development approval.
Originally launched in 2019 as a $2 billion development of 3600 homes that would be located near Sydney’s future airport in the city’s western suburbs, the project has been plagued by delays.
The sale of Wilton Greens was brokered by Dominic Ong, Mark Litwin, Tim Holtsbaum and Frank Bulpett of Knight Frank.
The Wilton Greens deal follows Risland’s sale of another major estate in Melbourne’s west last year for about $250 million. It divested the undeveloped portion of its 366-hectare Windermere estate, 170 hectares, to Singapore’s Frasers Property. The 170 hectares would yield 2200 more residential lots with an end value of about $800 million, according to Frasers.
Both major estates were put up for sale when holding company Country Garden warned about liquidity problems as it suffered an $11 billion loss in January-June 2023. In October, it defaulted on $US11 billion ($17.5 billion) of offshore bonds due to subdued housing sales in China.
Within a decade Country Garden has gone from an ambitious and cashed-up player in talks to buy Meriton, the business of Australia’s wealthiest developer, Harry Triguboff, for $10 billion, to a shadow of its former self.
In 2017, it was the largest Chinese developer with sales of 551 billion yuan ($118 billion).
Other developers have similarly exited Australia or severely downsized their Australian interests in response to China’s property crisis, including Poly, Greenland, Yuhu and Dalian Wanda.
Major Chinese developers have been offloading Australian assets to manage debts and bond repayments amid a housing crisis in China where home buying sentiment has plummeted.
House prices fell at the fastest rate in eight years in December, as total residential sales plunged 20 per cent. Property sales by floor area fell 8.5 per cent in 2023, while new construction starts plunged 20.4 per cent.
As China’s property crisis continues to deepen, the Chinese government has included Country Garden in its draft list of 50 developers that would be eligible for a range of financing support.
