Cooling real estate market takes toll on profits of listed property developers

More than half of the listed real estate companies reported lackluster performances marked by shrinking year-on-year net profits in the first quarter, according to the Shanghai-based Wind Information Co Ltd.

The total net profits of the 142 companies, which stood at 11.74 billion yuan ($1.88 billion), were down by 5.36 percent from the same period last year. Seventy-four of them reported shrinking net profits.

China Vanke Co Ltd, which posted 1.53 billion yuan in net profits by the end of March, registered the first year-on-year drop of 5.23 percent in 13 years.