Business as the foundation—breaking the deadlock in construction and management. Xincheng Holdings has opened a path for private real estate developers to break through.

Ask AI · How does Xincheng Holdings’ commercial operations, against the trend, become a performance “stabilizer”?

During the deep adjustment period of the industry, with the strategic choice of “proactive adjustment and focusing on commercial management,” Xincheng Holdings has achieved steady performance growth and continuous optimization of its structure.

On March 27, Xincheng Holdings released its 2025 full-year performance announcement. For the full year, the company recorded revenue of 53.01 billion yuan, net profit attributable to shareholders of 680 million yuan, and non-GAAP net profit attributable to shareholders of 614 million yuan. As of the end of the reporting period, Xincheng Holdings had 6.8 billion yuan in cash on hand; its net debt ratio was 56.97%, continuing to remain at a relatively low level in the industry. The company’s net operating cash flow was 1.425 billion yuan, positive for 8 consecutive years.

Commercial operations support “half the sky”

A careful look shows that Xincheng Holdings’ “residential + commercial” dual-wheel-driven model has undergone a change. The wording in the annual report has also shifted subtly—from “real estate development + commercial operations” in the past to “commercial operations + real estate development.” With “business supporting residences,” commercial operations have completely replaced the residential development business and become this company’s core growth engine.

At the shareholders’ meeting held at the end of May last year, Chairman and President Wang Xiaosong made the position clear: earlier, most of his effort had been focused on the real estate development business. Over the past two years, as market conditions have changed, commercial has become the company’s fundamental business and future development foundation. The company will invest 80% of its time and energy into the commercial segment.

In 2025, Xincheng Holdings added 5 newly opened Wuyue Plazas. As of the end of the reporting period, the company had deployed 207 Wuyue Plazas across 141 cities nationwide. The number of plazas that have opened and are under delegated management reached 178. The number of opened plazas ranks first among Chinese listed companies, and occupancy has remained stable at a high level of 97.86%.

Meanwhile, the foot traffic and sales of Wuyue Plazas have been steadily improving. During the reporting period, the total foot traffic of Wuyue Plazas reached 2.001 billion person-trips, up 13.31% year over year. Total sales were 97.0 billion yuan (excluding vehicle sales), up 7.18% year over year. The number of members was 54.97 million, up 25.82%.

There is no doubt that the commercial segment has become the performance “stabilizer” for Xincheng Holdings’ growth. In 2025, Xincheng Holdings’ total revenue from commercial operations reached 14.09 billion yuan, up 10%. Its share of the company’s overall revenue increased to 25%, achieving the full-year target of 14 billion yuan in commercial total revenue.

More importantly, the property leasing and management business contributed gross profit of 9.095 billion yuan. The company’s gross profit share from this segment rose sharply from 48% in the same period last year to 63%. And the gross margin of this segment is 70%. With a highly profitable commercial portfolio, its performance contribution continues to climb.

After 14 years of accumulation, Xincheng Holdings is no longer a traditional developer. It has been gradually transforming into a commercial operations operator. The success of this model also provides a reference blueprint for private real estate enterprises to break through during their transformation and turnaround.

Building a new moat through construction and management

In the second half of the industry, competition is no longer about “who has more land reserves,” but about “who has stronger management capabilities.” The construction management and delegated management business is a key direction for many real estate companies’ strategic transformation. Its light-asset model not only further optimizes the financial structure and reduces pressure on capital investment, but also has characteristics such as low leverage, high profitability, and resilience against the cycle.

Xincheng Holdings understands this well. As early as 2022, it foresaw the trend and established a new Chengdu? (Xincheng) Construction and Management light-asset platform. Through construction management and delegated management services, it expanded the space for lightweight development, created a new increment of profitability, and built a diversified business structure of “development + commercial + construction management.”

After three years of intensive development, Xin Cheng? (Xincheng) Construction and Management has grown rapidly by leveraging the group’s efficient operations, resource network, and brand advantages, achieving breakthrough results. By the end of 2025, it had cumulatively managed 155 projects; the cumulative total managed gross floor area exceeded 26 million square meters, and it has basically achieved a nationwide layout.

On January 6, the China Index Research Institute released the “2025 China Real Estate Construction Management Enterprise Rankings,” showing that Xincheng Construction and Management ranked Top 8 in the industry by newly signed construction management contracted area of 10.61 million square meters for the year, and ranked Top 11 in the industry by construction management sales amount of 2.96 billion yuan. The steady advancement of these two key indicators demonstrates the professional strength of Xincheng Holdings’ construction management business and market recognition.

To integrate efforts and improve efficiency, on November 30 last year, Xincheng Holdings issued an internal notice to adjust the organizational structure of the real estate development business unit.

Among the most notable changes is the light-asset construction management segment. Xincheng Construction and Management Company was dissolved. Two new companies were established—Xincheng Wanjia Construction and Management Company and Xincheng Hongtu Construction and Management Company—which are responsible for expanding light-asset business in different regions under the business unit and for operating and managing them.

Based on its emphasis on the construction management business, and also taking into account team stability and experience transmission, Wang Xiaosong appointed veteran executives Meng Qingli and Yao Xiaoyu as general managers of the two construction management companies, respectively.

This move by Xincheng Holdings reflects its precise grasp of industry trends. The light-asset delegated construction management track is becoming one of the most certain structural dividends during the downturn period of the industry cycle. Data monitored by CREF shows that in 2025, among the Top 20 companies nationwide by newly added construction management scale, their newly signed construction area reached 21.926 million square meters, a year-on-year increase of 16%. In terms of tier distribution, the number of companies with newly added construction management scale exceeding 10 million square meters in 2025 increased to 10, from 5 more than in 2024. The industry clearly shows characteristics of scaled expansion.

Reconstructing the survival logic of real estate enterprises

On the real estate development side, Xincheng Holdings follows the “9-character guideline” proposed by Wang Xiaosong: “mitigate risks, preserve value, and adjust structure.” It actively stops land acquisition, shrinks the scale of residential development, and focuses resources on sales that have cash collection.

Last year, Xincheng Holdings did not acquire any land. The company’s full-year contracted sales amount was 19.27 billion yuan. At the same time, internally the company manages cash flows separately for its commercial management business and development business, and does not arrange overall coordination unless it is an urgent situation. As the scale of development and sales business continues to shrink, the company’s drag on performance is expected to continue to decrease.

Sales with cash collection provide a solid guarantee for cash flow safety. In 2025, Xincheng Holdings achieved a cash collection amount of 21.276 billion yuan, with a cash collection rate of 110.41%.

In addition, Xincheng Holdings actively responds to national policies and does a good job in “ensuring delivery.” In 2025, the company delivered more than 38,000 units of housing. In the past three years, the cumulative delivery volume has already exceeded 278,000 units. With a tangible delivery scale and hard-core product quality, it demonstrates the company’s sense of responsibility.

Of course, contraction does not mean giving up. Wang Xiaosong once said: “We have been doing development for more than 20 years and have strong development capabilities. This business will definitely not be lost. If the housing market recovers in the future, the residential development team can restart at any time.”

Wang Xiaosong distilled Xincheng Holdings’ corporate spirit into the “Camel Spirit,” implying that as the industry keeps developing, the company maintains strategic focus and operational resilience. Looking back at 2025, Xincheng Holdings has been upholding this spirit and building development space that is more certain amid a complex industry environment.

2026 is a critical year for Xincheng Holdings. Wang Xiaosong set “deep cultivation and strong roots, uphold integrity and innovate” as the theme for the year. “We choose to continue returning to the essence, focusing on building our core capabilities, and using our own certainty to respond to external uncertainties.”

The exam paper has already unfolded. It remains to be seen how Xincheng Holdings will keep writing the answers, and steadily reinforce its own certainty step by step.

(Note: This article is real estate industry information published by China National Radio. It is for reference only.)