China’s property sector continues to spiral downward, with fresh data showing record declines across development investment, home sales, and land revenue—underscoring the depth of the country’s prolonged real estate slump. Despite a raft of government support measures, the market shows little sign of stabilizing, prompting renewed calls from policymakers for stronger intervention.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, real estate development investment fell 13.9 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2025 to 6.77 trillion yuan (about $950 billion). Residential investment dropped 12.9 percent to 5.20 trillion yuan ($730 billion), marking the steepest decline since 2021. The indicator has remained negative since April 2022 and returned to double-digit contraction in April 2025.
Land sale revenues further highlight the market’s freeze. After plunging 44 percent from the 2021 peak to 4.87 trillion yuan ($683 billion) in 2024, revenues fell again to 2.23 trillion yuan ($313 billion) in the first three quarters of this year.
Sales of new commercial housing also continued to slide. The total floor area sold decreased 5.5%, while sales revenue fell 7.9% to 6.30 trillion yuan ($884 billion). Both measures have been in decline since 2021, and the downturn—after briefly narrowing last year—accelerated again from April 2025, reaching the widest margins of the year.
The price weakness has now spread across the entire market. September marked the first month in 2025 when used-home prices fell in all 70 cities tracked by the government. Even major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen—where authorities introduced rescue measures in August—saw continued price declines.
Yin Yanlin, vice chairman of the National Committee’s Economic Committee and former deputy director of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission Office, warned that current policies remain inadequate. He urged shifting the government’s focus from “suppressing price increases” to “supporting price increases,” emphasizing that real estate remains the biggest drag on fixed-asset investment and could serve as a vital link between investment and household consumption.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), October 23, 2025
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202510230256.aspx