Debt-saddled Chinese property firms took heavy fire in bond markets on Tuesday, after the poster child of the sector’s woes, Evergrande Group, missed its third round of bond payments in as many weeks and others warned of defaults.

A wave of developers face payment deadlines before the end of the year and with Evergrande's fate looking increasingly bleak, fears are mounting of a wider crisis.

Weary Evergrande bondholders still haven't received almost $150 million worth of coupon payments that had been due on Monday, although there was little surprise after the firm had skipped two other payments in recent weeks.

Evergrande didn't reply to a Reuters request for comment. It has maintained radio silence for weeks and markets are now counting down to a Oct. 18-19 deadline when it will be formally declared in default if it still hasn't stumped up.

"It is pretty serious now and it looks like it is going to be long and drawn out process," said London-based Trium Capital fund manager Peter Kisler about Evergrande and the wider crisis.

"I don't see the recovery being particularly high," he said referring to what Evergrande bondholders would get if Evergrande gets broken up. "I think 20 cents (for every dollar of the bonds' original face value) is more or less fair."

Problems have already spread well beyond just Evergrande.

Mid-sized rival Fantasia also missed a payment and Modern Land and Sinic Holdings are trying to delay deadlines that would still most likely be classed as a default by the main rating agencies.

Looming deadlines

Refinitiv data shows there is at least $92.3 billion worth of Chinese property developers' bonds coming due next year.

Seaport Global's EM Corporate Credit analyst Himanshu Porwal said the key dates and payments to watch this year were: