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Centaline's statement comes as a deepening housing market
crisis, rising risk of default and a faltering economy are
dragging property developers and agents into commission arrears.
The Hong Kong property agency's mainland arm, Centaline Property
Agency (Shenzhen), has not recovered some commission fees as
property developers grapple with the debt crisis and liquidity
crunch, Centaline said in a statement on Friday.
"The current amount of unpaid commissions from developers and
agents is huge and Centaline Property is not in a position to
advance them to its employees," the company said.
It did not give a figure for the unpaid commissions but the
Securities Times state news outlet reported on Aug. 21 that
commission owed to the Shenzhen subsidiary had reached more than
1 billion yuan ($137.19 million).
The Shenzhen unit has paid fixed salaries up to July, Centaline
said, adding that all of units were operating normally and it
would not withdraw from the mainland China market.
Centaline said it had set up a team to handle overdue payments
and it would prioritize the settlement of corresponding
commissions with employees once funds are recovered.
Liu Tianyang, who is leading the team, earlier told the
Securities Times that some developers had used housing to offset
commissions, but that often resulted in a loss of revenue for
the Shenzhen property agency.
He said the company was operating under major pressure and the
payment of commissions due to employees would lead to more
difficulties for it.
($1 = 7.2890 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Ella Cao and Ryan Woo; editing by Robert Birsel)
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