The real estate company completed a one-year maturity extension on $500 million in senior unsecured notes, prompting S&P to regrade it one notch higher to "CCC".
Yu Liang's comments helped to drive up the CSI Real Estate Index 6%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index rose more than 1%
Wheat and garlic are being accepted as property down-payments as desperate China developers scramble to boost sales after a plunge in sales from January to May.
Ratings agency S&P Global downgraded Greenland to "selective default" on Wednesday after the state-backed property developer extended the maturity of $488 million in bonds
New construction starts measured by floor area plunged 30.6% in January-May from a year earlier, after a 26.3% fall in January-April
The government has eased mortgage costs through interest rate cuts, relaxed some rules on ownership of second homes and urged banks to lend more to buyers
Zhaoqing, in Guangdong province, is believed to be the first municipality to introduce guidelines to ease China's property crisis by helping developers' liquidity
Securities brokerages will issue credit default swaps or credit risk mitigation warrants for the bonds to make them more attractive
Average new home prices in 70 major cities fell 0.2% on a month-on-month basis, compared with zero growth in March, according to Reuters calculations
Zhongliang is struggling to repay notes worth $729m. Even if it wins approval to extend bond coupons by a year, it would need to pay an extra $1.25 million due to the weak yuan
Authorities have eased some financing controls for the property sector in a bid to bolster the economy hurt by widespread coronavirus pandemic-related lockdowns
The Chinese Communist Party's central political committee has allowed local civic authorities to tweak real estate policies based on domestic realities