NBS: China's property market shows signs of stabilizing

China's property market showed signs of stabilization in the first eight months of 2026, as growth in existing-home transactions helped offset weaker new-home sales, Fu Linghui, spokesman and chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said at a press conference on September 15.

The floor area of registered second-hand home transactions reached 549.23 million square meters from January to August, exceeding that of new-home sales for several consecutive months. During the same period, sales area of newly built commercial housing fell 12.1% on year, while registered second-hand housing transactions rose 10.6% on year, according to data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

The change reflects a shift in the property market, where transactions in second-hand homes are gradually becoming more prominent than sales of newly built homes, Fu said. Despite the drop in new-home sales, the rise in existing-home transactions has helped keep total property transactions broadly stable.

Meanwhile, home price declines also narrowed in August. Of the 70 major and medium-sized Chinese cities, 38 saw narrower on-year declines in new-home prices than in July. The declines in first-, second- and third-tier cities narrowed by 0.2, 0.1 and 0.1 percentage points, respectively.

For second-hand homes, 48 Chinese cities reported narrower on-year price declines in August. The declines narrowed by 1 percentage points in first-tier cities, and by 0.2 percentage points in both second- and third-tier cities.

Moreover, China's inventories of newly built commercial housing continued to decline. Unsold floor space was down 1.1 % on year at the end of August, extending the decline to six consecutive months. Unsold floor space of homes that had been on the market for less than three years fell 4.2% on year, indicating faster destocking of relatively recent supply.

Fu attributed the improvement to city-specific policy adjustments, home-purchase subsidies, programs supporting households that sell an existing home to buy another, and efforts to convert unsold homes into affordable housing.

He said China will continue to reform its housing system and develop a new model for the real-estate sector, as homebuyers increasingly seek smarter, greener and more age-friendly homes.

Edited by Vivian Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com