Lower prices challenge developers

Major players struggle to maintain growth as home inventories mount

China's property developers are facing the pressures of a decline in net profits in the first half of 2014, a rising inventory, the cooling of buyers' expectations and price corrections.

The total net profits of 82 real estate companies that have released first-half financial reports dropped 3.57 percent to 20.098 billion yuan ($3.268 billion) from 20.841 billion yuan in the same period last year, according to the Shanghai-based Wind Information Co Ltd.