Country Garden was China's largest developer — and its $300B debt load collapsed in 2023

Country Garden Holdings, once China's largest property developer by sales, was considered a relatively safe player in China's property sector — focused on smaller cities and less leveraged than Evergrande. But in August 2023, the company missed interest payments on its dollar-denominated bonds, signaling a default on over $300 billion in liabilities.

The default was a shock because Country Garden had been seen as a survivor of the property crackdown that had already taken down Evergrande and other developers. The company's collapse demonstrated that China's property crisis was not limited to the most reckless developers — it was systemic, affecting even those who had been considered prudent.

Country Garden's collapse deepened China's property crisis, which had already wiped out trillions of dollars in household wealth and threatened the broader economy. The case illustrated how a debt-fueled growth model, even when managed more conservatively than the worst offenders, is still a debt-fueled growth model — and when the market turns, conservatism only determines the order of collapse, not whether it happens.