China New Home Prices Continue to Fall in July; Jan-July Development Investment Down 19.2% to 4.3 Trillion
China's new home prices continued to fall in July, signaling the property market remains in a bottoming phase. Jan-July new home sales area dropped 11.8% year on year, while second-hand home transaction area rose 10.2%, according to ministry data. Total housing transactions stayed broadly stable. Development investment totaled 4.3 trillion yuan, down 19.2% year on year, reflecting tighter supply controls and market adjustments.
Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on August 17 showed that new home prices continued to fall in July, with the industry as a whole still in a bottoming phase. From January to July, the sales area of newly built commercial housing fell 11.8% year on year, but according to contract filing data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the transaction area of second-hand homes in the same period rose 10.2% year on year. The combined transaction volume of new and second-hand homes remained broadly stable, and in April, May, and June 2026, the national total housing transaction volume continued to grow year on year.
From January to July, China's real estate development investment totaled 4.3 trillion yuan, down 19.2% year on year. The decline in development investment and the reduction in new supply reflect both the implementation of policies to strictly control new construction and the result of market self-adjustment. As the real estate market enters an era of existing stock, the gradual rise in second-hand home transactions and the gradual decline in new home transactions have become the norm. Therefore, analysis of the market should consider new and second-hand homes together to assess total supply and demand.