Yongsheng Service Lin Zhubo: The property management industry is currently in a critical period of transformation

Ask AI · How Lin Zhubo transitions from real estate to achieve rapid iteration as Property CEO?

21st Century Business Herald Reporter Tang Shaokui

On March 31, Yongsheng Services (01995.HK) released its 2025 performance report. This is the first financial report since Zhou Hongbin remained as Vice Chairman and Lin Zhubo took over as CEO. Despite facing dual challenges of macroeconomic pressure and industry adjustments, Yongsheng Services’ key indicators still outperformed industry averages.

Performance data shows that during the reporting period, the company’s operating revenue was 6.87 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.4%, maintaining growth for ten consecutive years; net profit attributable to the parent was 440 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 19%; full-year external expansion contract revenue reached 1.69 billion yuan, a 5.6% increase, setting a new record.

According to the “2025 China Property Management Industry Market Summary & 2026 Trend Outlook” report by China Index Academy, during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the valuation of the property management sector experienced a deep correction, with the price-to-earnings ratio remaining under pressure, and the industry development pace significantly slowing: the revenue growth rate of listed property companies dropped from over 40% in 2021 to less than 4% currently, gross profit growth continued to decline and turned negative, the “revenue growth but profit decline” trend persisted, and the growth rate of managed area slowed to about 3%. The industry’s focus has shifted from “scale is king” to “quality and efficiency first.”

Lin Zhubo stated that the property industry is currently in a critical transition period from rapid scale growth to connotative high-quality development. The past development model relying on incremental development is gradually shifting to a new stage centered on stock operation, management services, and professional excellence. He emphasized that the company is continuously upgrading its system construction, firmly returning to the essence of service, “We believe that true growth comes from owner satisfaction and trust.”

Lin Zhubo pointed out that the total size of the property industry has reached 1.6 trillion yuan, but there is still broad room for growth. Over 40% of residential properties nationwide are over 20 years old, with about 20k communities entering re-selection cycles each year. This provides important opportunities for companies with standardized operations and professional capabilities, and also lays a foundation for Yongsheng Services’ operational results to be efficiently converted into shareholder value.

By 2025, Yongsheng Services will maintain stable scale, focusing on 70–80 core cities such as Shanghai and Suzhou. While steadily expanding externally, it will orderly exit approximately 42 million square meters of poor-quality projects. The company aims to sign contracts for 350 million square meters and manage 250 million square meters, both with slight increases.

On the financial side, Yongsheng Services’ revenue grew steadily throughout the year, with basic property management income accounting for 79.4%, forming the core profit base; gross profit was 1.3 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to the parent was 440 million yuan, down 3.5% and 8.5% respectively year-on-year, but the decline in net profit was significantly narrower than the 19.3% mid-term drop. At the end of the period, cash reserves reached 2.77 billion yuan, a 5.6% increase, with operating cash flow of 510 million yuan, covering 1.2 times the net profit attributable to the parent; management and sales comprehensive expense ratio decreased to 7.2%.

Against this backdrop, Yongsheng Services reflects shareholder returns through three core actions. First, it adopts a “50% regular dividend + 20% special dividend” model, with a total dividend payout ratio of 70%, distributing a total of 0.2 HKD per share, with a dividend yield of 12%. The dividend ex-dividend date is May 15, and the payment will be made on May 29, improving payout efficiency compared to previous years. Financial data shows that since listing, Yongsheng Services has paid a total of 1.57 billion HKD in dividends.

Second, Yongsheng Services enhances shareholder equity through share repurchases and cancellations. In November 2025, the company launched regular repurchases, and 16k shares repurchased were canceled in February 2026.

Meanwhile, Lin Zhubo made four additional share purchases throughout 2025.

Lin Zhubo emphasized that the future company will shift its expansion model to promote “trustee management integration”; at the same time, it will deepen in high-margin tracks such as facilities management and smart water machines, and will promote high-margin business scale through private domain operations to build a sustainable second growth curve.

As a veteran of CIFI Group, Lin Zhubo admitted that after half a year of transformation into property management, he deeply understands the fundamental differences between the property industry and the real estate industry: property is a operation-driven organization, requiring more “farmer-style” meticulous cultivation, pursuing compound growth, relying on continuous accumulation of customer base, satisfaction, and penetration rate. For property, “thinking clearly and going far” is far more important than “doing fast.”

To quickly adapt to the new role, Lin Zhubo conducted on-site research on about 50 projects over the past six months, covering all regional city management teams. He clearly stated that Yongsheng Services will be his last career stop, and in the future, he will lead the team to immerse themselves, collaborate, and complete the transformation from a real estate person to a property person through iterative development.

Lin Zhubo believes that basic property services have distinct民民 attributes, do not need to pursue high gross margins, and the reasonable gross profit margin range is expected to be 15%–20%. In 2025, the company’s basic property gross profit margin slightly declined, mainly due to increased quality investment and optimized business structure leading to higher costs.

In customer expansion, Yongsheng Services successfully signed contracts with over 20 key accounts such as JD.com and Chery Automobile in 2025, maintaining stable scale while continuously optimizing project quality, laying a foundation for future growth.

Regarding collection rates, the company’s comprehensive property fee collection rate reached 81%–82%. Yongsheng Services CFO Zhou Di pointed out that the collection rate slightly declined due to macroeconomic impacts but recovered from past arrears, remaining overall controllable.

CRIC data shows that in 2025, nationwide residential property management satisfaction dropped to 69.1 points, down 2 points from 2024, hitting a recent low. State-owned enterprises lead in satisfaction, while private companies perform relatively weakly. The “stronger get stronger” pattern is evident; issues such as vehicle management, public area sanitation, and property fee transparency remain major pain points for owners. Meanwhile, property fee collection rates have declined for four consecutive years, with the average collection rate of the top 500 property companies dropping to 71%, listed companies around 78%, and small- and medium-sized companies generally below 65%, with the downward trend continuing.

In 2025, Yongsheng Services’ overall satisfaction and 400 customer survey satisfaction both slightly increased year-on-year. Lin Zhubo pointed out that 2026 will be the “Year of Lean Management,” and the company is firmly advancing lean management, establishing a group lean committee, and using modes such as human-machine collaboration and dynamic scheduling to improve efficiency in management and coordination, and to leverage technology for human efficiency.