A pedestrian walks past a construction site of a residential apartment project developed by China Vanke Co Ltd in Tianjin. The company posted 1.53 billion yuan in net profits in the first quarter, registering the first year on year drop of 5.23 percent in 13 years. Provided to China Daily

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.

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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.

Tan Huajie, secretary of Vanke's board of directors, told Beijing-based Securities Daily that completed floor space in the first three months accounted for only 6.6 percent of the year's total.

"Most of the sales settlements took place in the latter half of the year, particularly in the fourth quarter," said Tan.

China Merchants Property Development Co Ltd achieved net profits of 755 million yuan, 6.82 percent less than the first quarter in the previous year.

Gemdale Corp's first-quarter net profits plunged by 73.65 percent year-on-year to 49.34 million yuan.

China Poly Group Corp was the only one among the top four real estate companies to record bigger profits, an increase of 10.8 percent from the same period last year, of 820 million yuan. But it signed contracts worth only 10.37 billion yuan in the first quarter, down 13.83 percent year-on-year.

Commercial residential building area sold stood at 200 million square meters in the first quarter, representing a 3.8 percent year-on-year drop. The sales volume totaled 1.3 trillion yuan, down 5.2 percent year-on-year.