This article only represents the author's own views.

Struggling developers and their bond holders have taken much of the spotlight in China’s unfolding property crisis, which threatens to leave the latter group holding billions of dollars in unpaid debt. But less visible are other lenders that also stand to lose billions, many of them corporations that once saw China’s booming property market as a surefire bet.

One such company with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line is Kingboard Holdings Ltd. (0148.HK), which earlier this month disclosed that Country Garden (2007.HK) missed recent repayments due on loans made by one of its subsidiaries. That announcement finally awakened investors to the reality that the financial risk presented by defaulting real estate companies could spread well beyond the traditional banking and bond sectors.