According to documents filed on 12 August, Evergrande is being delisted for failing to resume trading within the required 18-month period.
This action is seen as the final act in China’s unprecedented property crisis, which began in 2021.
Earlier this month, state-backed developer China South City became the first of its kind to be ordered into liquidation by a Hong Kong court, following a number of private companies that met the same fate.
“Evergrande is one of the iconic examples of the collapse of China’s real estate sector in the past few years,” said Gary Ng, a senior economist at the investment bank Natixis.
While the delisting is mostly symbolic, he noted that “it still marks the end of the golden era of China’s real estate sector.”
In recent years, Chinese authorities have worked hard to revitalise the sector, which once accounted for a quarter of the country’s GDP.
Meanwhile, many homebuyers continue to wait for their unfinished homes, and creditors hope to recover their money.
“It’s hard to stimulate consumer demand and confidence if people don’t have money in their pockets,” said Oscar Choi, Chief Investment Officer at Hong Kong-based Oscar and Partners Capital.
The hopes of some homebuyers and investors in Evergrande’s wealth management products are “fading away.”
“After looking at many projects, I chose Evergrande because I thought a property developer this large wouldn’t collapse, but I was wrong,” wrote one user waiting for their home on the social media platform Douyin.