Author: Ma Yifan
More than two years ago, many subway companies suddenly "bet" on real estate and became a big land acquirer.
Now, houses built by these subway companies have entered the market one after another. How effective is the subway company to cross-border side jobs? According to the list of professional institutions, Xiamen Track has become the real estate company with the highest sales in Xiamen, and has even defeated the old "local snake" Jianfa Real Estate in some lists; and Chengdu Track has also suddenly "counterattacked" and is in Chengdu Ranking among all local real estate companies.
There are more subway companies that are making efforts. Last year, Ningbo Rail Transit added 11.93 billion yuan in new land reserves throughout the year, ranking 50th in the national real estate company's new value list; Hefei Rail's new value of 26.19 billion yuan in new value of 26.19 billion yuan in new value of 26.19 billion yuan. Ranking top among all subway companies, surpassing veteran real estate companies such as Vanke and Longfor.
Those who do side jobs top the list
Who is the real estate developer with the highest sales scale in Xiamen, the second-tier city? The answer is no longer those well-known real estate companies, but Xiamen Rail Construction Development Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xiamen Rail").
According to statistics from CRIC Fujian Region, in the 2024 Xiamen real estate research institution, Xiamen tracks occupy sales amounts, whether based on the full scope or the operation volume (including competitive construction), whether it is calculated by the full scope, the Xiamen tracks occupy the sales amount. and the top sales area.
According to the full-caliber calculation, Xiamen Track collected 15.88 billion yuan in selling houses in the Xiamen market last year, with a transaction area of 501,400 square meters.
If estimated based on the 100 square meters of a single suite, Xiamen Track sells more than 5,000 houses in Xiamen throughout the year.
Xiamen Track's achievements in the field of residential development have even surpassed many local old real estate companies.
In the field of real estate development, Fujian-based real estate companies from Xiamen have always had strong strength, such as Jianfa Real Estate, Guomao Real Estate, Xiangyu Real Estate, and MediaTek Group, all enjoy popularity in the national market. However, in the base camp Xiamen, they all lost to a company whose main business is subway construction, operation and travel services.
This subway company has not been engaged in real estate for a long time, and it was established much later than that of old real estate companies.
According to the official website, Xiamen Rail Construction Development Group Co., Ltd. was established in 2011 and is funded and supervised by the Xiamen State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. It has a registered capital of 30 billion yuan and a total asset of more than 180 billion yuan.
Xiamen only had the first subway line in 2017, and there are 3 lines that have been operated so far. In addition, Xiamen Metro has several lines under construction.
In addition to planning transportation investment and construction and rail transit operation and management, Xiamen Rail also regards urban development and operation along the subway as an important business segment.
The trick to stand out in the real estate field is to vigorously develop the TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) project. Relying on its background advantages, with public transportation stations as the center, we acquire land and build a complex integrating work, commerce, culture, education, residence, etc.
In Xiamen, a city with a long history of subway travel, Xiamen Track has vigorously marketed the concept of real estate TOD projects in recent years and quickly established its own brand.
In 2020, Xiamen Rail Investment established "Xiamen Metro Overlay Investment Development Co., Ltd." (hereinafter referred to as "Xiamen Metro Overlay"). By the name, it can be seen that this is a subsidiary specializing in TOD projects.
In December 2021, it was the turning point of the real estate market turning from hot to sluggish, and the land acquisition of private real estate companies shrank significantly. At this time, Xiamen Track acquired the TOD plot of Huli District Wetland Park Station at a reserve price of 9.29 billion yuan. The plot was It is a Xiamen ***TOD development project with a total construction volume of nearly 400,000 square meters.
In 2022, Xiamen Track spent another 12.5 billion yuan to acquire multiple TOD plots; this year, the Xiamen State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission also transferred 100% of the equity of the veteran real estate company Tefang Group into Xiamen Track. Xiamen Track began to independently manage real estate projects and poached professional managers from real estate companies such as Vanke.
Due to the continuous and vigorous land acquisition in 2021 and 2022, Xiamen Track's full-scale sales exceeded 10 billion in 2023, ranking 7th in the real estate company ranking in Xiamen.
In the Xiamen real estate market in 2024, Xiamen Track won the championship. The residential projects it launched this year include Wetland Park TOD, Qixing Bay TOD, Haicang Center TOD, Southern New City TOD, etc. Among them, the Wetland Park TOD was the "triple crown" of residential amount sales in Xiamen last year, the "triple crown" of the number, amount and area of commercial housing sales in Haicang District, and the "triple crown" of Tong'an District. Southern New City TOD ranked among the top three sales rankings in Xiang'an District.
Although the pace of land acquisition of Xiamen tracks has slowed down in the past two years, judging from the Xiamen subway line planning, Xiamen's TOD market still has great development potential - the number of kilometers of Xiamen subway is currently open to traffic is 98 kilometers, and the number of kilometers under construction is More than 122 kilometers, while 12 subway lines have been planned in the long run, with a total scale of about 493 kilometers.
The counter-trend growth of Chengdu track
Another subway company that has reached the top of the real estate company list is Chengdu Rail City Investment Group.
In the past two years, the new housing market in Chengdu has been very popular, and the transaction data has emerged from an independent market.
Against this background, many real estate companies with central enterprises are increasing their investment in Chengdu, such as China Resources Land, China Railway Construction, China Merchants Shekou, Poly Development, etc.; in addition, the best among Sichuan and Chongqing real estate companies, such as Longfor, are also the best. Occupying an important position in the Chengdu market.
However, according to CRIC data, compared with the lively 2023, the sales scale of leading real estate companies in Chengdu has generally shrunk in 2024. For example, China Resources Land's full-caliber sales in Chengdu fell from 28.8 billion yuan to 20.2 billion yuan. China Railway Construction Corporation fell from 23.8 billion yuan to 20.3 billion yuan, and Longfor fell from 20.8 billion yuan to 12.9 billion yuan.
However, in the top 10 sales list of Chengdu real estate companies in 2024, a new name appeared - Chengdu Rail City Investment Group (hereinafter referred to as "Chengdu Rail"). The company's annual sales performance in Chengdu in 2024 reached 13.043 billion yuan. , becoming a new real estate company with a 10 billion yuan, ranking *** among all local real estate companies.
In the Chengdu market, only the sales of the four central enterprises, China Railway Construction, China Resources Land, China Merchants Shekou and Poly Development, are still on the track in Chengdu. The rest, whether they are local state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, old brands or new highs, have lost sales to them. Chengdu track, including Longfor, Wanhua Investment, Chengdu Tiantou, etc.
Chengdu, which opened its first subway line in 2010, has 15 lines in operation. Like Xiamen Track, Chengdu Track's idea of developing real estate is also to vigorously develop TOD projects.
According to CRIC statistics, in 2024, Luxiao TOD, a subsidiary of Chengdu Track, will be launched on the market and is the transaction area of the same type of products in the High-tech South District; Sichuan Normal University TOD Nanyuan will open 5 times and 5 times within 3 months. The sold out is the number of units sold in Jinjiang District with a construction area of more than 140 square meters; Xingfuqiao TOD's commercial housing transaction area and number of units sold in 2024 are both Jinniu District.
Based on the data from Chengdu and Xiamen, it can be seen that the track TOD project built with subway stations is indeed more popular among home buyers.
Chengdu Track and Xiamen Track have one thing in common - their TOD projects are mainly based on the market. The overall size of the TOD project in Chengdu Track is generally over 100 acres or 1,000 acres, and the scale is comparable to "city building". In addition to selling residential properties, Chengdu Track is also exploring its own end to do commercial real estate.
According to the official WeChat of Chengdu Rail, the current development area of Chengdu Rail TOD has nearly 10 million square meters, the average annual start-up of commercial projects is nearly 1 million square meters, and the average annual start-up of commercial projects and holdings ranks among the top in Chengdu. The TOD commercial project of Chengdu Track *** will be launched in 2024.
There are many subway companies that are focusing on the real estate development field. For example, Ningbo Rail Transit, which opened its first subway line in 2014. According to data from China Index Academy, its real estate sales performance in 2024 reached 5.09 billion yuan, ranking in Ningbo market housing. No. 7 in the company sales list. Not only that, Ningbo Traffic also increased its land acquisition efforts last year, with an additional 11.93 billion yuan in land reserves throughout the year, ranking 50th on the national new value of real estate companies.
Hefei Track acquired land more vigorously last year, with an annual new cargo value of 26.19 billion yuan, ranking among all subway companies, surpassing veteran real estate companies such as Vanke and Longfor.
TOD projects still have great potential
Why are subway companies entering the market for real estate development? *** The earliest successful experience can be traced back to the Hong Kong Metro.
According to historical data, MTR has promoted the model of linkage and integration between land development and subway construction since the 1990s. Since then, MTR signed a franchise agreement with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government of China to obtain exclusive development rights for plots along the railway through the construction and operation of railways. With the "rail + property" model, Hong Kong Metro is known as the world's most profitable subway company.
After MTR, Shenzhen Metro also began to test real estate and became one of the most profitable subway companies in the mainland. In 2022, Shenzhen Metro's real estate industry ranked third in Shenzhen, with sales exceeding 20 billion yuan.
In addition, since the second half of 2021, traditional real estate companies have reduced their land acquisition, and the subway TOD project has the characteristics of difficulty in development and long cycles. Therefore, the financial strength of real estate companies is also higher. It is from this time that The subway company with state-owned assets "begins in person". According to statistics from the E-House Research Institute, 21 cities of subway companies participated in the acquisition of land in 2022, an increase of 7 cities over the previous year; a total of 72 pieces of land were sold throughout the year, an increase of 60% over the previous year.
Before 2021, many TOD projects were still acquired by the top 100 real estate companies, or after subway companies acquire land, they introduce professional real estate companies to cooperate in development. After 2022, there are more subway companies independently operating. In 2024, many subway companies began to enter the top of the city's sales list because they collectively came to acquire land in 2022.
CRIC analyst Shen Xiaoling believes that the development of TOD projects can also alleviate the funding problems of rail infrastructure. Since rail transit projects usually have huge investment and long recovery periods, they require great cash flow support. The TOD development model can be used to address land. Carry out comprehensive development and utilization, and use the recycled housing sales funds to greatly alleviate the financing problems of infrastructure.
In addition, CRIC also believes that with the support of transportation resources, TOD projects have greater advantages over ordinary projects. Taking Yuexiu Real Estate as an example, after the developer introduced Guangzhou Metro as a strategic shareholder in 2019, he worked together to develop the "rail transit + property" TOD model and entered a stage of rapid development. The contribution of the TOD project to sales performance was nearly one-fifth. From 2016 to 2021, the annual growth rate of my country's total urban rail operation mileage will be above 15%, and the construction speed will be above 6% after 2022. Although the overall urban rail transit construction speed has slowed down, some key areas The multi-level rail transit planning of "high-speed rail + intercity railway + urban rail" has begun, which is conducive to the larger-scale integrated development of "high-speed rail + subway + production + business + city + residence + people".
Source: *** Finance