In 2023, the average price of real estate in China was approximately 10,438 yuan per square meter, representing a decrease from the previous year. Rising prices in the real estate market Since the 1998 housing reform, property prices in China have been rising continuously. Housing in the country is now often unaffordable, especially considering the modest per capita income of Chinese households. Shanghai and Beijing even have some of the most competitive real estate markets in the world. The rapid growth in housing prices has increased wealth among homeowners, while it also led to a culture of speculation among buyers and real estate developers. Housing was treated as investments, with owners expecting the prices to grow further every year. Risk factors The expectation of a steadily growing real estate market has created a property bubble and a potential debt crisis. As Chinese real estate giants, such as China Evergrande and Country Garden, operate by continuously acquiring land plots and initiating new projects, which often require substantial loans and investments, a slowdown in property demands or a decline in home prices can significantly affect the financial situation of these companies, putting China’s banks in a vulnerable position. In addition, due to a lack of regulations and monetary constraints, the long-term maintenance issues of high-rise apartments are also a concern to the sustainable development of China’s cities.

The China Residential Real Estate Market Report is Segmented by Type (Villas and Landed Houses, Apartments and Condominiums) and by City (Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Other Cities). The Report Offers the Market Sizes and Forecasts for the China Residential Real Estate Market in Value (USD) for all the Above Segments.

In 2022, the average price for residential real estate in Shenzhen was over 55.700 thousand yuan per square meter. This was the highest price among all major cities in China, with the average price across the country amounting to 17,359 yuan per square meter. A pillar of the Chinese economy China gradually abolished its welfare housing allocation system and liberalized its real estate market in the 1990s. In 2003, the government declared the real estate sector as one of the pillars of the Chinese economy. Thanks to the country's rapid economic development and urbanization, China's real estate market expanded significantly in the last two decades, with the sector accounting for about seven percent of China's GDP in 2022. Unaffordable in major urban centers While the real estate industry greatly contributed to the growth of China's economy, the housing market boom also created social issues and financial risks. In comparison to household income, property prices in major cities, most notably Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, are extraordinarily expensive for average citizens. Soaring housing prices have also led to a rapid division of wealth between homeowners and renters. At the same time, debt problems created by the rapid expansion of real estate companies and the high levels of debt accumulated by Chinese citizens have created serious potential hazards for China's financial system.

Key information about House Prices Growth

• China house prices dropped 4.1% YoY in Dec 2024, following a decrease of 4.8% YoY in the previous month.
• YoY growth data is updated monthly, available from Mar 1999 to Dec 2024, with an average growth rate of 7.4%.
• House price data reached an all-time high of 25.0% in Feb 2010 and a record low of -12.6% in Apr 1999.

CEIC calculates House Prices Growth from monthly Average Residential Property Price per Square Meter. The National Bureau of Statistics provides year-to-date Average Residential Property Price per Square Meter in local currency.

This data package includes the underlying data files to replicate the data and charts presented in Why China's housing policies have failed, PIIE Working Paper 23-5.

If you use the data, please cite as: Huang, Tianlei. 2023. Why China's housing policies have failed. PIIE Working Paper 23-5. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics.

House Price Index MoM in China decreased to -0.10 percent in February from 0 percent in January of 2025. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for China House Price Index MoM.

In 2023, the value of personal housing loans in China amounted to 38.17 trillion yuan, representing a slight drop of 1.6 percent compared to the previous year. The overall value of outstanding mortgages more than doubled between 2016 and 2021 before it plateaued afterwards.

A key factor to the growth of the real estate market China's personal housing loan market emerged in the 1990s in tandem with the marketization of the country's real estate sector. Its subsequent expansion also mirrored the growth in the property industry. Thanks to the dramatic rise in home prices across China since the early 2000s, substantial capital has poured into the market through real estate development loans and personal housing credits. For almost two decades, many Chinese middle class citizens accumulated their personal wealth through the considerable appreciation of their properties, which they financed with the help of mortgages.

Risks The persistently high level of outstanding personal mortgage is becoming increasingly concerning amidst China’s current economic and market situation. With the country’s economic slowdown and the oversupply in the property sector, the housing market is losing steam, resulting in elevated risks of bad debts to financial institutions. At the same time, the household debt in China is now staying above 60 percent of the country’s GDP, undermining the ability to consume and invest in the Chinese population.

Housing markets are often characterized by price bubbles, and governments have instituted policies to stabilize them. Under this circumstance, this study addresses the following questions. (1) Does policy tightening change expectations in housing prices, revealing a regime change? (2) If so, what determines the housing market’s reaction to policy tightening? To answer these questions, we examine the effects of policy tightening that occurred in 2016 on the Chinese housing market where a price boom persisted in the post-2000 period. Using a log-periodic power law model and employing a modified multi-population genetic algorithm for parameter estimation, we find that tightening policy in China did not cause a market crash; instead, shifting the Chinese housing market from faster-than-exponential growth to a soft landing. We attribute this regime shift to low sensitivity in the Chinese housing market to global perturbations. Our findings suggest that government policies can help stabilize housing prices and improve market conditions when implemented expediently. Moreover, policymakers should consider preparedness for the possibility of an economic crisis and other social needs (e.g., housing affordability) for overall social welfare when managing housing price bubbles.

Since the 1998 housing reform, the Chinese real estate market went through more than two decades of prosperity. The overall sales revenue of commercial residential housing skyrocketed from 251.3 billion yuan in 1998 to over five trillion yuan in 2012, and more than 16 trillion yuan in 2021. However, sales revenue dropped considerably in 2022, and reached only around 8.5 trillion yuan in 2024. With demands for residential housing potentially falling, the sector is posing a significant risk to the long-term healthy development of the Chinese economy.

The Report Covers Commercial Real Estate Companies in China and the Market is Segmented by Type (office, Retail, Industrial (Logistics), and Hospitality). The Report Offers Market Size and Forecasts for the China Commercial Real Estate Market in Value (USD) for all the Above Segments.

In 2022, the price for new residential property in Shanghai's inner ring dropped by more than 4,000 yuan per square meter, to 119,244 thousand yuan per square meter. Although the local authorities introduced policies to stabilize the market, the real estate market in Shanghai’s central districts remained under downward pressure, similar to those experienced by other major cities in China.

The most competitive real estate market in the country

Home prices in Shanghai are among the most expensive globally. The area within the city's inner ring road is certainly one of the most competitive real estate markets in all of China, with property prices nearly three times higher than those outside the outer ring road. Rising prices are far beyond the reach of ordinary residents, and the few who can afford to buy often have to take out substantial mortgages for their homes, resulting in a high proportion of real estate in their personal assets.

Challenges facing China’s real estate sector

The high level of indebtedness of the Chinese people and the bubbles in the country's real estate sector have become one of the major risks to China's economy. While developers expanded through continuous borrowing and the sale of off-plan properties to homebuyers, the market saw a significant excess of housing supply in most regions. There have also been instances in recent years where developers have had difficulties in completing construction projects or in repaying their loans or bonds. Addressing the risks in China's real estate sector, particularly in companies such as the Evergrande Group and Country Garden, has become an urgent task to ensure China's economic stability and prosperity.

Key information about China Gold Production

• China Real Residential Property Price Index was reported at 93.823 2010=100 in Sep 2024.
• This records a decrease from the previous number of 96.851 2010=100 for Jun 2024.
• China Real Residential Property Price Index data is updated quarterly, averaging 99.037 2010=100 from Jun 2005 to Sep 2024, with 78 observations.
• The data reached an all-time high of 112.991 2010=100 in Sep 2021 and a record low of 87.950 2010=100 in Jun 2005.
• China Real Residential Property Price Index data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Bank for International Settlements.
• The data is categorized under World Trend Plus’s Association: Property Sector – Table RK.BIS.RPPI: Selected Real Residential Property Price Index: 2010=100: Quarterly. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

With the rapid progress of urbanization in China, the real estate industry, characterized by a long industrial chain, has become a pillar industry for economic development. Therefore, we inspect the nexus between land finance, housing prices, and economic growth. For this purpose, we use the panel data of 277 cities at the prefecture level or above in China from 2011 to 2019, and empirically examine it by using the Panel Vector Auto Regression (PVAR) model. The results show that there is a causal relationship between housing prices and economic growth. Housing prices promote economic growth in the short term and inhibit it in the long term. Both economic growth and housing prices have a significant impact on land finance. The economic growth show a significantly positive impact, while housing prices promote land finance in the short term with a long-term trend from positive to negative. This is the first study that tries to probe the relationship between urban housing prices, land finance, and economic growth by considering 277 prefecture-level and above cities in China. To promote the stable development of the regional economy, local governments need to overcome their dependence on the housing market and land finance and promote the healthy development of the housing market.

Since 2017, Chinese cities have set off a wave of talent migration, with major cities joining the talent war and issuing new talent settlement policies that might stimulate the real estate market through the inflow and outflow of human capital. However, the effects of new talent settlement policies on housing prices have not been extensively studied. This study used a difference-in-differences model to examine the causal effects of new talent settlement policies on housing prices in China based on data from 70 large and medium-sized cities. The results showed that new talent settlement policies had positive effects on housing prices, and the effects revealed pronounced regional heterogeneity: they were more significant in the eastern region, first-tier, and new first-tier cities, and varied across major migration zones. Further, the varying policy tools in the new talent settlement policies had disparate effects on housing prices. Thus, we recommend that new talent settlement policies must be coordinated with the goals of real estate regulation and reasonable regional standards, and that the policy tools should be tailored according to the actual conditions of cities.

This is the dataset and do file used in the article entitled Shantytown Redevelopment and Housing Prices: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Cities, published on the journal Land. Date Submitted: 2023-03-21

The Report Covers the Top P&C Insurance Companies in China, and the Market is Segmented by Line of Business (motor, Corporate Property, Liability, Home, Engineering, Marine) and by Distribution Channels (Direct Sales, Individual Agency, Cross-Border JV, Cross-Sector, and Other Distribution Channels). The Market Size and Forecasts are Provided in Terms of Value (USD) for all the Above Segments.

Property Price: YTD Avg: Beijing data was reported at 31,975.587 RMB/sq m in Dec 2024. This records a decrease from the previous number of 32,227.942 RMB/sq m for Nov 2024. Property Price: YTD Avg: Beijing data is updated monthly, averaging 19,329.232 RMB/sq m from Jan 2003 (Median) to Dec 2024, with 264 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 42,343.603 RMB/sq m in Jun 2021 and a record low of 4,515.769 RMB/sq m in Feb 2004. Property Price: YTD Avg: Beijing data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Price – Table CN.PD: NBS: Property Price: Monthly.

In 2023, with nearly 948 million square meters of floor space sold, residential properties accounted for around 85 percent of all floor space traded in the Chinese real estate market. The remarkable performance of the housing market led to a strong sense of speculation among the Chinese population, with people treating residential housing no longer as a commodity, but as an investment. The rising prices of residential properties in many major cities in the country are becoming potentially harmful to the long-term development of the Chinese economy.

With the rapid progress of urbanization in China, the real estate industry, characterized by a long industrial chain, has become a pillar industry for economic development. Therefore, we inspect the nexus between land finance, housing prices, and economic growth. For this purpose, we use the panel data of 277 cities at the prefecture level or above in China from 2011 to 2019, and empirically examine it by using the Panel Vector Auto Regression (PVAR) model. The results show that there is a causal relationship between housing prices and economic growth. Housing prices promote economic growth in the short term and inhibit it in the long term. Both economic growth and housing prices have a significant impact on land finance. The economic growth show a significantly positive impact, while housing prices promote land finance in the short term with a long-term trend from positive to negative. This is the first study that tries to probe the relationship between urban housing prices, land finance, and economic growth by considering 277 prefecture-level and above cities in China. To promote the stable development of the regional economy, local governments need to overcome their dependence on the housing market and land finance and promote the healthy development of the housing market.

The proportion of Chinese buyers among foreign buyers of property in the United States varied between 2011 and 2024. In 2024, 11 percent of foreign buyers of property in the U.S. hailed from China, making Chinese buyers the second largest foreign buyer group in that year, after Canadian buyers.