SOHO China Ltd, a major commercial property developer in China, saw a significant decline in turnover and core net profit in 2011 amid weak sales.

Its turnover plunged 69 percent annually to 5.685 billion yuan (US$898 million) while net profit, excluding valuation gains in property investments, dived 60 percent from 2010 to 1.422 billion yuan, the Beijing-based developer said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.

The company blamed the sharp fall in turnover and net profit on the lack of new completed projects and the decrease in area available for booking during the 12-month period.

If valuation gains were included, its net profit rose 7 percent to 3.892 billion yuan, or 0.75 yuan a share.

The company achieved contracted sales of 10.9 billion yuan last year, with an average selling price of 58,649 yuan per square meter. That was about half of its earlier target of 20 billion yuan.

"Though the commercial real estate sector stayed rather intact from the country's tightening measures to curb housing speculation, the company didn't have any new properties available for sale in the first half of the year," Pan Shiyi, chairman of SOHO China, said in the statement.

"Also, the market liquidity has begun to shrink since September, which affected the company's sales."

The company has set an annual sales target of 23 billion yuan in 2012 as well as achieve 10 billion yuan worth of acquisitions.