China's upbeat housing sentiment rolls into 2015

"Inventory is high. We can't raise prices until after the market digests them, " said a chief executive officer of a developer based in southern Guangdong province. "The sales went up but prices didn't; it won't be easy for us to raise prices."

China's new home prices fell for the 11th consecutive month in November by an annual 3.7 percent, the biggest drop since 2011. Property sales hit 132.2 million square meters, the highest level in 11 months, though still down 11 percent from a year earlier.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said in a report last month it expects home prices in first and second-tier cities to continue to fall in 2015 on high inventory, while prices in third and fourth-tier cities would stabilize.

In terms of full-year results, a breakdown of sales figures also underscores the increasing polarization between large and small players, leading to quicker consolidation. CASS forecasts that half of the developers will "vanish".

China has an estimated 50,000 developers although only 80 account for close to 40 percent of market share.

The largest companies tend to grow faster. Seven developers with over 100 billion yuan in sales, including Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties and Evergrande Real Estate, on average sold 24 percent more in 2014, while those with 30-100 billion sales grew at 14.6 percent, according to housing researcher China Index Academy.

Unlisted state-backed Greenland Group said its 2014 contracted sales jumped 50 percent from a year earlier to 240.8 billion yuan, topping China Vanke for the first time.