China’s biggest private sector developer, Country Garden, appears to be heading for default after failing to make a payment on an offshore bond — another critical moment in the slow reckoning taking place in the country’s vast property sector.

Two years ago it was the default of another developer, Evergrande, that encapsulated concern over the scale of problems in Chinese property. Evergrande had racked up $340bn of liabilities and become the world’s most indebted property developer.

Country Garden was long thought more stable but its problems now show both the deterioration in the sector — with sales drying up and thousands of stalled developments across China — and the difficulties for Beijing in getting to grips with a long crisis that has shaken the world’s second-largest economy.