In the first 7 months of this year, the number of residential properties listed for auction in China increased by 23.1% compared to the previous year. The transactions also saw a growth of over 40%, however, the average transaction price decreased by 9.1%. This trend indicates a significant expansion in the scale of property disposal and enforcement in the auction market, characterized by a focus on trading volume over price.
On August 11th, data released by the China Index Research Institute revealed that from January to July, the nationwide number of residential properties listed for auction was 245,000, marking a 23.1% increase compared to the previous year. The number of properties transacted reached 89,000, showing a substantial 42.7% increase. The clearance rate stood at 36.2%, with a 4.97 percentage point increase year-on-year, and the total transaction amount amounted to 96.975 billion yuan, up by 21.04%. The average transaction price for residential properties auctioned off during this period was 8,081 yuan per square meter, experiencing a 9.1% decline. This data indicates a growing number of properties entering the auction market, with prices on the decline.
The trends in the listing and transaction of residential properties through auction in the first 7 months of this year have seen significant changes compared to 2025.
Historical data from the China Index Research Institute shows that in the entire year of 2025, there were 322,000 residential properties listed for auction nationwide, with 113,000 properties transacted. The fact that the transaction volume in the first seven months of 2026 already accounts for nearly 80% of the entire year of 2025 illustrates a substantial increase in the number of properties entering the judicial disposal system this year.
Furthermore, looking at the auction process of transacted properties, in the period from January to July 2026, a total of 51,000 properties were transacted in the first auction phase, accounting for 41.9% of the total transactions, which is a 2.9% increase from the previous year. The average transaction price for properties in the first auction phase was 6,980 yuan per square meter, a decrease of 3.6% compared to the previous year. In the second auction phase, 56,000 properties were transacted, making up 45.2% of the total, with an average transaction price of 6,745 yuan per square meter, a 3.3% increase year-on-year. Approximately 13,000 properties were sold through subsequent auctions, accounting for 10.8% of the total transactions. Around 2,602 properties were transacted through re-listing and other circumstances, representing 2.1% of the total transactions.
It is noted that a property going through an auction process from listing to final transaction may experience multiple auction rounds. As long as the property is bid on during each auction in the period from January to July (even if it later ends up unsold or disposed of), it will be recorded in the respective auction round data. Therefore, the total number of transactions in the first and second auction phases (amounting to 107,000 properties) exceeds the 89,000 properties reported by the China Index Research Institute.