Housing Index in China decreased by 4.80 percent in February from -5 percent in January of 2025. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - China Newly Built House Prices YoY Change - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

On the 2023 Fortune China 500 ranking for real estate companies, China’s leading real estate developer Vanke ranked first with a total revenue of 503.84 billion yuan, followed by Greenland Holdings and Country Garden.

Real estate market in China 

In the last 20 years, China’s real estate market has experienced its most prosperous development. Land purchase has also become an important source of financial revenue for many local governments. The housing price increased so rapidly, especially in larger cities, that the government had to take measures to restrict investment. With the slowdown of China’s economic development and gradually saturated market, people are also afraid of the burst of the real estate bubble. While the real estate price in smaller cities tended to stay stable or even decrease, there is still growing potential for real estate prices in larger cities, especially the first-tier cities. China’s consumers are increasingly interested in the high-quality real estate products built by leading real estate developers.

Leading real estate developers in China 

Compared to the ranking in 2021, there were three new members entering the leading ten real estate developer club in 2022. The larger developers became stronger as they had advantages in land acquisitions, financing, marketing and pricing power which is difficult for smaller developers to catch up with. Thus, consolidation is also very common among China’s real estate developers. In 2022, two real estate giants disappeared from the fortune 500 ranking list, Evergrande and Sunac. Affected by the changing real estate market, they were facing cash flow problems and were affected heavily by the debt crisis.

In 2024, real estate developers in China completed 737.43 million square meters of floor space, representing a significant drop of almost 28 percent from the previous year. Housing completion figures in China have generally decreased over the last decade, owing to structural challenges in the real estate industry. The ups and downs of the Chinese real estate market Following the marketization of the housing sector in the late 1990s, China's real estate industry has enjoyed more than two decades of prosperity. The output value of the sector multiplied several times, with home prices rising sharply across the country and some properties in urban centers such as Beijing and Shanghai being among the most expensive in the world. While being a pillar industry in the country’s economy, the real estate sector has also stimulated the development of many related industries, such as construction and financial services. The property bubble and unfinished buildings The former expansion of the housing market had created a considerable bubble in the sector, which finally burst during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many apartments, especially the tower blocks in small or medium-sized cities and towns remained unsold or left unoccupied, leading to financial turmoil for real estate developers. The failure of major market players such as China Evergrande and Country Garden resulted in more than a million unfinished apartments in China.

Portugal, Canada, and the United States were the countries with the highest house price to income ratio in 2023. In all three countries, the index exceeded 130 index points, while the average for all OECD countries stood at 117.5 index points. The index measures the development of housing affordability and is calculated by dividing nominal house price by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 set as a base year when the index amounted to 100. An index value of 120, for example, would mean that house price growth has outpaced income growth by 20 percent since 2015. How have house prices worldwide changed since the COVID-19 pandemic? House prices started to rise gradually after the global financial crisis (2007–2008), but this trend accelerated with the pandemic. The countries with advanced economies, which usually have mature housing markets, experienced stronger growth than countries with emerging economies. Real house price growth (accounting for inflation) peaked in 2022 and has since lost some of the gain. Although, many countries experienced a decline in house prices, the global house price index shows that property prices in 2023 were still substantially higher than before COVID-19. Renting vs. buying In the past, house prices have grown faster than rents. However, the home affordability has been declining notably, with a direct impact on rental prices. As people struggle to buy a property of their own, they often turn to rental accommodation. This has resulted in a growing demand for rental apartments and soaring rental prices.