China’s real estate market continues to face challenges, with the latest data showing a persistent downturn. In April, new home prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities in China dropped by 3.5% year-on-year, marking the largest decline since May 2025 and the 34th consecutive month of decline.
On May 18, the National Bureau of Statistics of the Communist Party of China released data on the price changes of residential properties in 70 major cities for April.
According to the data, in terms of year-on-year comparison, new home sales prices in first-tier cities fell by 2.1%, with Shanghai rising by 3.7% while Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen declined by 2.3%, 4.4%, and 5.3% respectively. Second-tier cities saw a 3.3% drop, with third-tier cities experiencing a 4.1% decline in new home sales prices.
Regarding existing homes, first-tier city sales prices dropped by 6.8% year-on-year, while second and third-tier cities experienced declines of 5.9% and 6.3% respectively.
In month-on-month comparison, first-tier city new home sales prices saw a slight 0.1% increase, with Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen recording small rises while Beijing witnessed a decrease. Second-tier and third-tier cities saw a 0.1% and 0.3% decline respectively in new home sales prices on a monthly basis.
In terms of existing homes, first-tier cities saw a 0.4% increase month-on-month, while second and third-tier cities experienced a 0.2% and 0.3% decrease, respectively.
Reuters calculated based on the data from the National Bureau of Statistics that in April, new home prices in the 70 major cities dropped by 3.5% year-on-year, marking the largest decline in 11 months, while the month-on-month decrease was 0.1%, the smallest in a year.
According to “Jingu Cai Xun,” a financial information and economic media under “Rongju Hui,” in April, new residential prices in 70 major Chinese cities dropped by 3.5% year-on-year, further widening from the 3.4% decline in the previous month. This marks the largest year-on-year drop since May 2025 and the market has shown negative growth for the 34th consecutive month, signaling a persistently weak real estate market.
The article noted that the current stimulus policies have yet to effectively boost housing demand and market confidence. Major cities including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Tianjin continued their downward trend in housing prices, with Shanghai being the only exception with a 3.7% year-on-year increase. On a monthly basis, the slight drop of 0.1% in April’s new home prices compared to a 0.2% decline in March reflects the most moderate monthly decline in nearly a year.
Additionally, on the same day, the National Bureau of Statistics released the basic situation of China’s real estate from January to April.
The data shows that during this period, national real estate development investment amounted to 2.3969 trillion yuan, a decrease of 13.7% year-on-year, with residential investment decreasing by 13.1%.
Real estate development companies’ construction area for housing reached 5.45116 billion square meters, a 12.1% decrease year-on-year. The residential construction area dropped by 12.5% to 3.78005 billion square meters. The new construction area of housing decreased by 22.0% to 1.39 billion square meters, with residential new construction area falling by 23.6% to 1.0057 billion square meters. Completed housing area dropped by 24.0% to 1.1886 billion square meters, with residential completion area declining by 25.8% to 847.3 million square meters.
Real estate development companies’ fund in place totaled 2.6697 trillion yuan, down by 18.4% year-on-year. Domestic loans decreased by 25.9%, self-raised funds declined by 10.5%, deposits and prepayments fell by 17.6%, and individual mortgage loans decreased by 31.7%.