Since the beginning of this year, the government of Suzhou City in Jiangsu Province has been rolling out a series of policies in an attempt to “rescue the real estate market,” aiming to stimulate transaction volume and stabilize the continuously declining housing prices. However, the official interventions have failed to stop the “plunge” of housing prices in Suzhou, as the market response has been much colder than anticipated by policy makers, even showing a trend of “not buying.” Both data and market reactions clearly outline the severe reality of the Suzhou real estate market. The once soaring Suzhou housing prices over the past decade are now rapidly retracting, with some viewpoints suggesting that prices have returned to the levels of 2015, effectively squeezing out the bubble that was inflated back then.
According to a review of the Suzhou real estate market, from 2009 to 2019, Suzhou housing prices nearly quadrupled. In 2010, prices broke the ten thousand yuan mark, rose to 20,000 yuan in 2017, and reached a peak average price of 25,800 yuan per square meter in 2019. The core areas such as the Industrial Park and Gusu District even approached an average of nearly 40,000 yuan. The year 2015 marked the beginning of the previous round of soaring housing prices, with prices doubling in just four to five years in Suzhou. However, due to the too rapid increase in the first half of 2019, where three “land kings” were auctioned off within half a month, prompting the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development to have a talk, Suzhou housing prices peaked in the same year, then continued to plummet until 2021.
Data released by the Suzhou Statistics Bureau shows that the transaction volume of commercial housing in Suzhou (including residential, office, and commercial properties) peaked in 2020.
As we entered 2022, amidst shrinking personal income, uncertain job prospects, and pervasive uncertainty, Suzhou housing prices entered a mode of rapid decline.
Data from Ke Rui Suzhou shows that in 2024, the transaction volume of new houses in downtown Suzhou was approximately 4.29 million square meters, a decrease of about 26% compared to the previous year; the average transaction price of new houses was around 26,637 yuan per square meter, a 5% drop year-on-year. By February 2025, although there was a slight rebound in the number of newly signed contracts for residential new houses in Suzhou, prices are still on the decline. The second-hand housing market is equally bleak, with data tracked by the Beike Fangjia app showing that the average transaction price of second-hand houses in February was 16,500 yuan per square meter, a decrease of 10.8% from the previous month, with the average price falling below 17,000 yuan. Among the second-hand houses listed that month, 64,330 units were being reduced in price, indicating that most landlords and homeowners are still seeking price cuts to exit the market.
In March of this year, Suzhou kicked off a new round of market rescue efforts for 2025. The Suzhou High-Tech Zone issued detailed rules for subsidy implementation of talent housing tickets, effective immediately until October 31, 2025, where eligible talents can apply for housing ticket subsidies, with the highest amount reaching 2 million yuan.
On the same day, the Suzhou Industrial Park released the “Future Dream of the Park – Suzhou Industrial Park Youth Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Action Plan.” In it, it was proposed that leading talents in science and technology innovation in the Jinji Lake area who meet the criteria would receive a maximum of 2 million yuan subsidy for home purchase.
Furthermore, on March 12, the Suzhou Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued a solicitation draft which proposes to increase the support for housing provident fund loans. Families raising two or three minor children can receive a 30% and 35% increase in the loan amount, respectively, for purchasing their first or second self-occupied homes. For housing provident fund loans for new and renovated “two-smart-one-full” housing, the loan amount can be increased by 20%. In addition, Suzhou plans to provide interest subsidies for housing provident fund loans to families facing financial difficulty.
Following that, there was another heavy news in the Suzhou real estate market: the city’s Housing and Construction Bureau, in collaboration with multiple financial institutions, launched a set of specialized financial products called “three lows and one wide,” where the minimum down payment is only 15%, and eligible homebuyers can use talent housing tickets to offset the down payment. It is worth noting that for the first five years, homebuyers only need to repay a minimum of 100 yuan per month, however, the amount to be repaid may increase significantly in the later period. The introduction of this series of policies is undoubtedly aimed at boosting transaction volume.
The series of official incentives in the real estate market failed to halt the rapid decline of housing prices in Suzhou. Faced with the turbulent worries about “unemployment wave” and “back to poverty,” some internet users couldn’t help but lament: when will the real estate market stabilize, as failure to do so will result in most people falling back into poverty.
The market collapse has directly led to investors falling into unprecedented anxiety and powerlessness. Recently, a netizen from Jiangsu revealed that the “Shang Ruige” community in Suzhou High-Tech Zone is experiencing a “frantic dumping” situation, with a large number of investors selling at all costs, dragging the prices of second-hand houses in the Lion Mountain area to the bottom.
Two years ago, a 130-square-meter unit at Shang Ruige could be sold for 5.9 million yuan, but now it has plummeted to around 3.5 million yuan, clo—se to halved price, even causing disbelief among real estate agents. Furthermore, a new development just 1.4 kilometers away from Shang Ruige has an opening price of only around 18,000 yuan per square meter, further squeezing the survival space of second-hand houses.
A Suzhou blogger recently lamented that the drastic depreciation of Suzhou housing prices has completely squeezed out the bubble that was created, leaving many of the once extravagant house flippers watching their investments of millions to tens of millions virtually reduced to zero, with real estate becoming nearly unsellable. He pointed out that the prices of many property projects in Suzhou have plummeted by over 70% in a short period, leading to the shattering of everyone’s dreams. Even the once high-flying real estate developers are now facing asset depreciation, and even the situation of no hope for recovery.
The market’s collapse has also left real estate agents feeling powerless. Mrs. Meng, a real estate agent in Suzhou, recently shared a mixed experience on social media: she showed a client a 95-square-meter house priced at 1.14 million yuan, and the client expressed satisfaction after seeing it, arranging to negotiate with the homeowner. However, when the client met the homeowner face-to-face, the homeowner offered a price of only 700,000 yuan, leaving everyone present in shock. Despite Mrs. Meng’s persuasion that “the homeowner is sincere about selling and cannot accept such a low price,” the client insisted, “we can only add another 20,000 yuan at most, and if he wants to sell, we can buy it.”
Upon hearing this, the homeowner angrily turned away and told Mrs. Meng that he had rejected an offer of 1.25 million yuan last year and that the current offer of 700,000 yuan was “outrageous.”
The current situation of Suzhou’s real estate market is not only a reflection of the city’s economy but also a microcosm of the imminent collapse of the current Chinese real estate market.