As of the end of June 2025, approximately half of Greentown China's 270 billion yuan inventory was from 2021 and earlier. In the first half of the year, Greentown China made a provision for inventory depreciation of 1.93 billion yuan. In 2024, six real estate companies, including Poly, Vanke, Greentown, C&D, China Merchants Shekou, and Yuexiu Property, made a total provision for inventory depreciation exceeding 28 billion yuan. In the first half of this year, Poly Development and Vanke's provisions for inventory depreciation reached 7.12 billion yuan and 5.11 billion yuan, respectively.

Since inventory depreciation directly affects the profits of real estate companies, inventory from 2021 and earlier has become one of the uncertainties affecting their profits. At the mid-2025 earnings conference, the management of C&D International stated that the total consolidated inventory impairment provision for inventory from 2021 and earlier exceeded 10 billion yuan. If non-consolidated projects are included, this amount approaches 14 billion yuan.

From the perspective of management personnel at the aforementioned large real estate companies, the burden of inventory is not easy to shake off. On one hand, this inventory consists of completed properties, and without high-premium projects to offset profits, significant price reductions would inevitably lead to a sharp decline or even losses in the company's net profit for the year. On the other hand, most of the inventory has inherent drawbacks, making it difficult to offload quickly.

Additionally, due to the high uncertainty in the real estate market, even after shedding old burdens, new ones may arise. For example, a top-ten real estate company made a provision for inventory depreciation of 2.8 billion yuan in 2021 and announced at the earnings conference that it had "resolved the issue of high-priced land." but then made provisions of 5.9 billion yuan and 5.4 billion yuan in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Sunset real estate, building materials, decoration, home furnishings, and second-hand homes.