Compared with many real estate companies who are deeply mired in funds such as selling assets and seeking debt rollovers, the leading real estate company camp known for its stability is also quietly promoting self-revolution.
As small as the recent annual meeting is simply held, "printing paper is used on both sides" and other behaviors to reduce expenditure, as large as organizational structure adjustment, talent incentive mechanism adjustment, digital construction process speed up, from cost control to organizational momentum, the improvement of quality and efficiency is almost the same. It is the consistent behavior adopted by the current leading real estate companies.
The root cause is to fight against the downward trend of the industry.
Safety is more important than growth. Based on the core demand of 'stability', leading real estate companies have also been more cautious in mergers and acquisitions.
The head local tyrant who takes the initiative to frugal food
Compared with some real estate companies in the same city, who are busy looking for debt rollovers, selling assets, and laying off employees... Huang Lin, a real estate person who has worked in a central enterprise in Shenzhen for more than ten years, has not been disrupted, and everything is business as usual.
However, there have also been many new changes within the company.
The newly held annual meeting has never been the same as in previous years. Booking a star-rated hotel for two or three days to celebrate, the sense of ceremony and atmosphere is full, and millions of yuan are spent at every turn.
It's just that a celebration ceremony was held in the large conference room of the company, which ended in a hurry in less than a day.
Compared with the lively situation in previous years, the company's annual meeting in 2021 can be regarded as the easiest and fastest year since she joined the company.
The company executives delivered a speech at the opening of the annual meeting. A core management person did not raise his arms and shouted his fighting spirit to encourage everyone to sprint for higher sales. He just said straight to the point, "I hope everyone can concentrate more on work in 2022. In terms of quality improvement, we will strive for stable and good performance.”
Simplifying the annual meeting is far more than this real estate company.
An old employee who has served in Longfor Group (00960.HK) for more than ten years said that the company is in a similar situation.
"You can save it if you can, and things that are optional and ceremonial will be simplified in the future."
This kind of austerity action to eliminate unnecessary expenses is being launched by many leading real estate companies.
An old employee of China Resources Land (01109.HK) said that recently, the company has also proposed measures such as "printing paper on both sides".
Since the second half of 2021, the company has also cancelled afternoon tea, etc.
The ritualistic items such as brand names and tea that were prepared for internal meetings in the past have now been cancelled.
China Overseas Properties (00688.HK), which has always been strict in cost control, has recently mentioned measures such as "printing paper on both sides" and "no elevators within the third floor".
Vanke (000002.SZ/02202.HK) previously issued the “Proposal on “Saving Food and Living” and Creating a “Wartime Atmosphere” at the headquarters of Vanke Group (hereinafter referred to as the “Initiative”).
The "Initiative" puts forward seven main work requirements, including: changing the inertial thinking mode of the golden age, and running the business philosophy throughout work and decision-making; subtracting actions and expenses that do not produce value, and spending small money to do big things Wait.
The Initiative also mentions specific action programmes.
For example, be diligent and thrifty, and eliminate waste; book tickets in advance to reduce the cost of ticket purchases; comprehensive price concessions and time slot selection; select accommodation hotels based on the principle of optimal cost performance.
For Huang Lin, who is accustomed to running funds in units of tens of thousands, the company is carefully calculating the administrative expenses that were simply overlooked in the past.
And she also gradually realized that the management of Vanke has frequently mentioned in the past one or two years that "the company is not a choice for individual enterprises, such as Gree Electric Appliances (000651.SZ), Midea Group (000333.SZ) and other home appliance manufacturing enterprises." It is more like a foresight of the future situation of the industry.
Along with administrative expenses, marketing expenses, which are the bulk of the cost, are also seen as a link that needs to be further reduced by many real estate companies.
According to a number of real estate managers, channel expenses, which account for about 40% of marketing expenses, will become the focus of the company's pressure reduction.
According to an insider of China Overseas Real Estate, most of the company's projects are mainly self-selling, and the actual delivery effect of the channel will be further carefully evaluated in the future.
Another Beijing-based real estate manager from a central SOE also mentioned similar behavior.
"In the past, many of our real estates wanted to sell quickly, and they used channels to attract and bring customers, which accounted for 45% of the marketing cost. This year and beyond, we are also considering building our own marketing team, and planning to sell some properties with poor locations. Use channels, and try to sell others by yourself. At the same time, we may not plan to launch some channels with average effect of bringing customers this year.”
Promotional expenses such as advertising fees and activity fees other than channel fees are also the key areas for many leading real estate companies to reduce pressure.
The above-mentioned person from Longfor Group said that the company is considering spending on pressure reduction.
"In terms of promotion fees, the company is more inclined to invest in media with higher weight, and will pay more attention to the actual effect of delivery."
A person in the real estate industry in Shenzhen also said that in the current external financing environment, the space for reducing financing costs is relatively small and the controllability is not high, which is more affected by the wind direction of financing policies.
However, the pressure drop of marketing expenses and financial expenses is more feasible and feasible.
It is expected that more companies will start to reduce this cost expenditure in the future.
Expenditure plans are back and forth
尽管头部房企不约而同地选择压缩成本开支，但是这并不意味着房企的支出计划全面收缩。
多位头部房企人士有介绍，公司在人才激励、数字化流程改造方面，会比以往更大胆，投入力度会更大，组织架构也会跟进做出动态性调整。
中海地产内部人士就表示，公司并没有下达只出不进的冻编计划，还是会持续引进人才。“我们会甄选出业务水平过硬的各类人才进入公司，提升管理效率。”
用人要求水涨船高的另一面是考核的透明化、过程化，注重人才潜能的充分挖掘。
在人才考核方面，中海地产近两年也改传统的KPI绩效考核为“KPI+OKR”，以较好规避KPI考核的一刀切，又能极大程度地激发员工的主动性。
招商蛇口(001979.SZ)新近在人才激励方面也做了调整。
招商蛇口内部人士介绍称，目前，很多房企的激励制度是以年为单位的，干得好年底奖金增加，干得差年终奖打折。这种激励周期过长，缺乏及时性，无法有效调动员工的积极性。考虑到提升公司对人才的吸引力，激励到位，公司在原有激励制度的基础上，新推出了一个名为“招商赢”的激励工具。城市公司的考核指标被拆散到每个项目开发全过程中，通过各个工作项的完成情况赚取积分，积分的高低对应奖励或处罚。超出标准可以获得积分，达不成标准则要扣减积分。该激励机制中，奖励向基层员工倾斜，处罚则向管理层倾斜。
“借助这一激励工具，各项考核指标都得到量化，原来的结果考核就变成过程考核，奖罚能够及时兑现，可以有效地调动团队积极性。”招商蛇口人士表示。
组织毛细血管活力不断被激发的同时，也有房企不断审视总部与一线的关系，调整组织架构。
整体看，各个房企着力组织优化的方式有所差异，但基本上均围绕能更好地提升组织效率这一中心点。例如，华润置地新近将海外事业部予以独立出来，自负盈亏。
“不再是像以往的事业部结构，被归类为总部的二级子公司。独立拆分事业部，自负盈亏，也是为了让各个细分业务板块主动到市场中去求生存，更有活力，更有效益。”华润置地人士称。
In contrast, China Merchants Shekou focuses more on empowering the front line from its headquarters.
"The company requires the headquarters function to have the ability to help the front line solve problems, not just identify problems."
Vanke's latest round of organizational restructuring has shifted from a strong front-line management and control model to a strong management and control department, with real estate development and other powers being concentrated in the development and operation headquarters.
Vanke has further explained the management and control ideas similar to "rights collection", saying that the industry is facing huge challenges, and it is necessary to give full play to the advantages of the group army to help the company develop healthily and steadily in the era of management dividends.
The company should strengthen the construction of a game of chess in the organizational structure, unify the will, reduce the cost of trial and error, form a joint force, and improve the management efficiency.
It has long been a consensus of all parties that the industry situation is different in the past.
The 2021 annual data released by a number of real estate research institutions such as Kerui show that the performance of the real estate industry is far worse than in previous years.
Crane data shows that the average target completion rate of large-scale housing companies in 2021 is less than 90%, which is in the lower range in recent years.
Among some large-scale real estate companies that disclosed their performance targets for 2021, more than 80% of the real estate companies failed to achieve their goals.
Many real estate companies are more cautious about their performance targets this year, and some real estate companies will face negative sales growth.
At the first extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in 2021 held in Shenzhen in November 2021, Vanke also mentioned that "for the time being, we cannot see the general trend of the real estate industry next year, but the company has lowered the minimum operating target for 2022 compared with 2021."
A manager of a private real estate enterprise in Shenzhen who is in deep financial crisis and seeking to sell projects also said that despite the recent statement from the central bank and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to do a good job in M&A financial services for key real estate enterprise risk disposal projects, China Merchants Shekou, OCT A (000069.SZ) The successive trials of mergers and acquisitions of bonds have sparked speculation in the industry that state-owned enterprises and central enterprises may set off a small upsurge in negotiating project mergers and acquisitions with insurance companies.
However, according to a number of sources, the response in the industry is relatively dull, and the enthusiasm of active acquirers is not high.
"Perhaps it is generally believed that safety is more important than growth, and there is a core appeal based on 'stability'. Even if the cost of financing is three or four points, the central enterprises with significant financial capital advantages have become more prudent and critical." The private Real estate executives said.