Chinese property developers have posted strong revenue and profits for 2017, but liquidity remains a concern as the government keeps a tight lid on financing to cool the housing market. By revenue, China Merchants Land came out on top with 49% growth, while SOHO China reported the biggest increase in profit, up 420% from the previous year.

Country Garden, China’s largest developer by sales, reported CNY550.8 billion of contracted sales in 2017, up 78.3% from a year ago and beating the CNY400 billion target it set itself at the beginning of last year. Profit grew 126% to CNY26 billion. The firm expects to see sales increase again this year although it has set no specific sales target for 2018, instead choosing to “adjust sales strategies depending on the market,” according to Cheng Guangyu, Vice President of Country Garden. China Resources Land recorded contracted sales of CNY152.12 billion, up 40.8%, while China Merchant’s “profit attributable to the owners” doubled thanks to a 51% increase in its contracted sales to CNY24.16 billion.

“National property sales are slowing down, but for big listed developers it is not a problem,” said Toni Ho, Analyst at RHB OSK Securities Hong Kong. “The optimism comes from the robust contracted sales they registered during 2016-17, which can support revenue in 2018-19.” Developers’ financial results usually lag one or two years behind their current contracted sales, so the impressive 2017 results reflect strong contracted sales in 2015-16. In the past year, the 10 biggest Chinese developers by market capitalization posted an average of 56% growth in contracted home sales, according to Bloomberg, which bodes well for their earnings prospect in 2018. “Developers who have earned a large sum of money in the past couple of years are generally quite optimistic about the market,” said Alan Jin, Property Analyst at Mizuho Securities Asia.

But Jin believes developers may start to feel the strain from tighter policy constraints later in the year. China’s government has introduced a string of measures since last year to cool the property market, including restrictions on house-purchase eligibility, loans and selling prices, the South China Morning Post reports.

Analysts said even if sales slowed this year, the impact will not be seen in the company results until after 2018.