Population, society and living standards · housing market

Housing and real estate

Investment, construction, sales, completed-but-unsold floorspace, developer funding and residential prices are different flows, stocks or indexes. They cannot be added into one property-market total.

NBS · 2025 ↗

Sales floorspace

8.8101

100m m² · annual flow

Sales value

8.3937

trillion yuan · annual flow

Unsold floorspace

7.6632

100m m² · year-end stock

Second-hand transaction floorspace

7.3685

100m m² · 2025 urban online-signed contracts

Derived residential transaction value

10,004.91

yuan/m² · not a national price index

01 · What the statistics actually measure

Flows, year-end stocks and price indexes must stay separate

Investment, starts, completions, sales and developer funds are annual flows. Construction includes projects spanning years. Unsold floorspace is a year-end stock of completed saleable space. The 70-city data are indexes with 100 as the comparison benchmark.

Do not interpret this way

Unsold floorspace ≠ national vacant housing

Sales value ÷ area ≠ constant-quality house-price index

02 · The long-cycle backdrop

Behind the long rise were urban migration, housing improvement, credit expansion and land finance

This section does not present these variables as an unreported house-price regression model. They separately describe the demand base, housing conditions, financial leverage and local land finance. The national commercial-housing average is composition-sensitive and is not a constant-quality house-price index.

19982,063yuan/m² · national commercial-housing average
199833.35%urbanization rate
199818.7㎡urban residential area/person · historical method
199810.45tn yuan · year-end M2
202567.89%urbanization rate
2025>40㎡urban housing area/person · official threshold
2025340.29tn yuan · year-end M2
202537.01tn yuan · personal housing loans

National commercial-housing average transaction price, 1998–2025

yuan/m²
Source: NBS · commercial-housing average sales price yearbook ↗ · NBS · 2025 ↗ · 1998–2012 are official NBS yearbook averages; 2013–2025 are transparently derived from same-scope sales value ÷ floorspace. Not a constant-quality house-price index.chinainfigures.com

BIS residential property price indices: nominal and real, 2005Q2–2026Q1

2010=100
Source: BIS · residential property price data ↗ · BIS · China series methodology ↗ · BIS · series change log ↗ · BIS selected China series: 2005Q2–2015Q4 covers newly constructed residential buildings in 70 cities; from 2016Q1 it covers existing residential buildings in 70 cities. The chart marks this method break explicitly. The real index is the nominal BIS series deflated by CPI; this is not one unchanged nationwide all-dwelling index.chinainfigures.com

Urbanization rate: complete annual series, 1988–2025

%
Source: NBS · population and urbanization yearbook ↗ · NBS · 2025 urbanization ↗ · 1988–2012 use the revised history in the 2013 yearbook; 2013–2019 and 2021–2025 use annual communiques, while 2020 uses the census value. All 38 annual points are official observations, with no interpolation.chinainfigures.com

Urban housing area per person: method breaks kept explicit

m²/person
Source: NBS · historical urban housing area ↗ · NBS · urban-household housing area yearbook ↗ · NBS · 2020 census housing area ↗ · The historical city measure, urban-household survey and census are not one unchanged series. The 2025 source says only “over 40 m²”; it is not encoded as 42 m².chinainfigures.com

M2 keeps growing while personal housing loan balances have fallen

trillion yuan
Source: NBS · historical M2 yearbook ↗ · PBOC · M2 ↗ · PBOC · personal housing loans ↗ · M2 is now a complete 1990–2025 annual sequence of official year-end observations with no interpolation. Personal housing loans still show only audited official points; the 38.91 tn yuan 2022 observation is Q3-end, not year-end.chinainfigures.com

Land-use-right transfer revenue, 2012–2025: sustained decline after the 2021 high

trillion yuan
Source: Ministry of Finance · 2012 final accounts ↗ · Ministry of Finance · 2019 final accounts ↗ · Ministry of Finance · 2021 land revenue ↗ · Ministry of Finance · land-transfer revenue ↗ · For 2012–2019, the series prioritizes Ministry of Finance final-account or budget-execution values at published precision; 2020–2025 uses the published annual fiscal-revenue values. This is government-fund budget fiscal revenue, not residential land supply area or residential land transaction value; earlier years are not appended where public accounting scope is ambiguous.chinainfigures.com

How to read the long cycle

Seven conclusions that stay closer to the data than a single house-price story

Every conclusion below is calculated from, or directly reads, the archived and governed data already shown on this page. They describe long-run co-movement, regime differences and measurement boundaries without turning correlation into a single causal formula for house prices.

014.6×

The national transaction average rose for decades, but this is not “the same home rose 4.6×”

The national commercial-housing average rose from 2,063 yuan/m² in 1998 to 9,527.36 yuan/m² in 2025, about 4.6 times the starting level. It also moved from 3,864 in 2007 down to 3,800 in 2008 and up to 4,681 in 2009. The long cycle was not a straight line, and changes in city, location, dwelling size and quality mix affect the national average.

02+16.60pp → +4.00pp

Urbanization continues, but the remaining increment is different from the early expansion phase

The resident-population urbanization rate rose from 33.35% in 1998 to 49.95% in 2010, a gain of 16.60 percentage points. From 2020 to 2025 it rose from 63.89% to 67.89%, a 4.00-point gain. The demand base is still expanding, but the high-urbanization experience of the earlier period should not be mechanically projected forward.

0318.7 → 31.6 → 38.6 → >40 m²

The macro backdrop of housing scarcity changed fundamentally, while method breaks still matter

Different official measures report 18.7 m² under the historical city measure in 1998, 31.6 m² in the urban-household survey in 2010, 38.6 m² in the 2020 census, and an official 2025 statement of “over 40 m²”. Together they show long-run improvement in housing conditions, but the three methods are not one unchanged series and cannot support a fabricated continuous growth rate.

0432.6× / 4.9%↓

Broad money kept expanding while household mortgage leverage stopped rising with it

M2 increased from 10.45 trillion yuan in 1998 to 340.29 trillion yuan in 2025, about 32.6 times as large. Personal housing loan balances, however, fell from 38.91 trillion yuan at end-Q3 2022 to 37.01 trillion yuan at end-2025, down about 4.9%. M2 growth can no longer be read as synonymous with households adding mortgage leverage.

0552.3%↓

Land-finance revenue also moved sharply off its high

Revenue from transfers of state-owned land-use rights fell from 8.7051 trillion yuan in 2021 to 4.1518 trillion yuan in 2025, a decline of about 52.3%. This is a major change in government-fund budget revenue, but it is not residential land-supply area and must not be translated into an identical percentage decline in residential land supply.

0643.9%↓ / 50.9%↓

After 2021, the reversal is clearest in market volumes and inventory

From 2021 to 2025, real-estate development investment fell from 14.7602 to 8.2788 trillion yuan, about 43.9%. Commercial-housing sales floorspace fell from 17.9433 to 8.8101 hundred-million m², about 50.9%, while year-end unsold floorspace rose from 5.1023 to 7.6632 hundred-million m², about 50.2%.

07synchronized expansion → divergence

The present looks more like divergence among the old drivers than a simple replay of the last cycle

By 2025, urbanization and M2 were still rising, but personal housing loan balances had fallen, land-transfer revenue was far below its 2021 high, and real-estate investment and sales floorspace had contracted sharply. The defensible conclusion is not that one variable “determines house prices”, but that several conditions that once expanded in the same broad direction are no longer moving together.

Reading rule: the national commercial-housing average is composition-sensitive; housing-area methods are not forcibly spliced; the 2025 housing-area statement remains only “over 40 m²”; urbanization and M2 are now complete annual series, while any remaining unobserved years stay missing rather than being interpolated.

03 · Investment and the construction cycle

Fewer starts do not translate immediately into equal completion declines

Construction floorspace includes new starts, continuing and resumed projects, and projects completed during the year. It is therefore much larger than annual starts or completions. Investment is not housing market value.

Development and residential investment

trillion yuan
Source: NBS · 2011 ↗ · NBS · 2025 ↗ · Annual NBS real-estate releases; per-year sources are listed in the exact-value tablechinainfigures.com

Construction, starts and completions

100m m²
Source: NBS · 2011 ↗ · NBS · 2025 ↗ · Construction includes multi-year projects and must not be added to starts or completions; per-year sources are listed belowchinainfigures.com

04 · Sales and inventory

Sales are annual flows; unsold floorspace is a year-end stock

Sales floorspace is based on formal contract area. Unsold floorspace covers completed commercial housing available for sale or rent but not yet sold or rented. It is not all vacant housing and cannot be derived as completions minus sales.

NBS · sales and unsold definitions ↗

Commercial-housing sales and unsold floorspace

100m m²
Source: NBS · 2011 ↗ · NBS · 2025 ↗ · Sales are annual flows; unsold floorspace is completed saleable year-end stock; per-year sources are listed belowchinainfigures.com

Urban second-hand housing transaction online-signing floorspace

100m m²

This is the total contract floorspace of urban second-hand housing transactions recorded through online signing during the reporting year. It is published in the NBS annual statistical communiqué and attributed there to MOHURD. It is a different statistical object from developer-reported new-commercial-housing sales floorspace and should not be added to it as one national housing-market total.

Source: NBS · 2023 second-hand housing transactions ↗ · NBS · 2024 second-hand housing transactions ↗ · NBS · 2025 second-hand housing transactions ↗ · Published in the annual NBS communiqué; its footnote defines the measure as urban second-hand housing online-signed transaction contract floorspace and attributes the data to MOHURDchinainfigures.com

05 · What sales value divided by area means

It is a composition-sensitive transaction average, not a national average house price

Dividing same-year sales value by floorspace gives average contract value per square metre. City, location, dwelling size, quality and housing-type mix all affect it, so it cannot replace a constant-quality price index.

Derived commercial-housing and residential transaction values

yuan/m²
Source: NBS · 2011 ↗ · NBS · 2025 ↗ · Sales value ÷ sales floorspace with unit conversion; not a constant-quality price index; per-year sources are listed belowchinainfigures.com

06 · Residential price directions in 70 cities

City counts show direction, not a national average change

An index of 100 means no change from the comparison period. New and second-hand homes are separate markets, and the 70 cities are not all Chinese cities. The page counts directions and does not calculate a simple average.

NBS · 70-city home prices ↗

Cities with rising, flat and falling prices in December 2025

70 cities/group
Source: NBS · 70-city home prices ↗ · Above 100 is up, 100 is flat and below 100 is downchinainfigures.com

07 · Where developer funds come from

“Personal mortgages” are funds received by developers

Domestic loans, self-raised funds, deposits and advance receipts, and personal mortgages are categories within funds received by developers. Personal mortgages here are not household mortgage balances, and the total is not all property-sector financing.

Main developer-funding sources

trillion yuan
Source: NBS · 2011 ↗ · NBS · 2025 ↗ · Listed categories do not necessarily exhaust total funds; residual is retained; per-year sources are listed belowchinainfigures.com

08 · Real estate, GDP and household wealth are different concepts

Housing provides services over time, but service value is not house price or housing wealth

New construction contributes investment and value added, rented housing provides actual rental services, and owner-occupied housing provides imputed services in national accounts. Housing services, development investment, transaction values, house prices and household housing assets answer different questions.

NBS · housing services and GDP ↗
See the GDP page’s housing-services explanation →

Annual exact values

Investment, construction, sales and year-end unsold floorspace

YearInvestment tn yuanConstruction 100m m²Starts 100m m²Completions 100m m²Sales 100m m²Sales value tn yuanUnsold 100m m²Source
20116.174050.795919.00838.924410.99465.91192.7194Release ↗
20127.180457.341817.73349.942511.13046.44563.6460Release ↗
20138.601366.557220.120810.143513.05518.14284.9295Release ↗
20149.503672.648217.959210.745912.06497.62926.2169Release ↗
20159.597973.569315.445410.003912.84958.72817.1853Release ↗
201610.258175.897516.692810.612815.734911.76276.9539Release ↗
201710.979978.148417.865410.148616.940813.37015.8923Release ↗
201812.026482.230020.93429.355017.165414.99735.2414Release ↗
201913.219489.382122.71549.594217.155815.97254.9821Release ↗
202014.144392.675922.44339.121817.608617.36134.9850Release ↗
202114.760297.538719.889510.141217.943318.19305.1023Release ↗
202213.289590.499912.05878.622213.583713.33085.6366Release ↗
202311.091383.83649.53769.983111.173511.66226.7295Release ↗
202410.028073.32477.38937.37439.73859.67507.5327Release ↗
20258.278865.98905.87706.03488.81018.39377.6632Release ↗

First-tier city snapshot

Residential sales price indexes, December 2025

NBS · 70-city home prices ↗
CityNew MoMNew YoYSecond-hand MoMSecond-hand YoY
Beijing99.697.698.791.5
Shanghai100.2104.899.493.9
Guangzhou99.495.299.092.2
Shenzhen99.595.699.494.6

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Data file updated: 19 Aug 2026

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Data through 2025Sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China

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Public record

Revision and update timeline

9
  1. Data updatev1.5.0

    Land-transfer revenue history extended to 2012

    Extended the official Ministry of Finance land-use-right transfer revenue series from 2020-2025 to a continuous 2012-2025 sequence using final-account or budget-execution values at published precision for historical years. No interpolation is used, and the measure remains fiscal revenue rather than residential land supply or transaction volume. Earlier years are not appended where accessible publications expose accounting-scope ambiguity.

    Related sources: Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance data via National Development and Reform Commission republication ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗

    Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed

  2. Data updatev1.4.0

    BIS residential property price indices added with explicit 2016 method break

    Added 168 quarterly observations for the BIS selected China nominal and real residential property price indices from 2005Q2 to 2026Q1. The page and formal metadata explicitly mark the 2016Q1 change from 70-city newly constructed residential buildings to 70-city existing residential buildings. OECD Analytical HPI is archived only as a research cross-check and is not spliced into the BIS series.

    Related sources: Bank for International Settlements ↗ · Bank for International Settlements ↗ · Bank for International Settlements ↗ · OECD ↗ · OECD ↗

    Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed

  3. Product updatev1.2.1

    Housing long-cycle interpretation strengthened

    Added seven bilingual, data-derived reading conclusions that distinguish long-run co-movement from causal claims, quantify the post-2021 activity reversal, and preserve all existing measurement boundaries. No formal housing or long-cycle data point changed.

    Related sources: Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance data via National Development and Reform Commission republication ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · People's Bank of China data via China Securities Journal ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Yueyang Municipal government ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Huangshi Municipal housing authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Wuhan Municipal government ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Guangdong Provincial financial authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Guangdong Provincial financial authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Suzhou Municipal financial authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Beijing Municipal financial authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Beijing Municipal government republication ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Wuhan Municipal government republication ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Shanghai Municipal financial authority republication ↗ · People's Bank of China ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Shanghai Municipal financial authority republication ↗

    Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed

  4. Data updatev1.1.0

    Housing and real-estate history extended to 2011

    Extended the national NBS real-estate cycle from 2021-2025 to 2011-2025 using ten additional archived annual releases. Investment, construction, starts, completions, sales, completed-but-unsold floorspace, developer funding, climate index and derived transaction-value averages now cover 15 years; the 70-city price section remains a December 2025 official snapshot.

    Related sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗

    Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed

  5. Data updatev1.6.0

    Nationwide secondary-market housing transaction floor area added

    Added the officially published 2023-2025 annual floor area of urban second-hand housing transactions recorded through online signing. The series is published in the NBS annual national statistical communique and attributed there to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. It remains separate from new-commercial-housing sales floor area, housing stock, vacancy and residential price indexes.

    Related sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗

    Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed

  6. Data updatev1.3.0

    Housing long-cycle annual gaps filled with official observations

    Filled the urbanization series to a complete 1988-2025 annual sequence, M2 to a complete 1990-2025 year-end sequence, and personal housing loans to a complete 2015-2025 year-end segment while preserving the 2004 historical anchor and 2022Q3 phase-high observation. No interpolation was used; the 2014 mortgage year remains intentionally missing because published values use conflicting institution-coverage scopes.

    Related sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · People's Bank of China data via China Securities Journal ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Yueyang Municipal government ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Huangshi Municipal housing authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Wuhan Municipal government ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Guangdong Provincial financial authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Guangdong Provincial financial authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Suzhou Municipal financial authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Beijing Municipal financial authority ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Beijing Municipal government republication ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Wuhan Municipal government republication ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Shanghai Municipal financial authority republication ↗ · People's Bank of China ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Shanghai Municipal financial authority republication ↗

    Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed

  7. Data updatev1.2.0

    Housing indicator gains long-cycle context data

    Added audited long-cycle context for national commercial-housing average sales price, urbanization, three method-separated urban housing-area measures, M2, personal housing loans and land-use-right transfer revenue. Missing years remain missing and method breaks are explicit.

    Related sources: Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance data via National Development and Reform Commission republication ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · Ministry of Finance of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Beijing Municipal government republication ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Wuhan Municipal government republication ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Shanghai Municipal financial authority republication ↗ · People's Bank of China ↗ · People's Bank of China data via Shanghai Municipal financial authority republication ↗

    Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed

  8. Initial publicationv1.0.0

    Housing and real-estate dataset prepared

    Prepared 2021-2025 national investment, construction, sales, unsold floorspace and developer-funding series, plus December 2025 residential price indexes for 70 cities.

    Related sources: National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗

    Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed

  9. Product updatev0.3.0

    Data downloads and revision timeline added

    Added page-level formal-data CSV files, chart-level CSV/PNG/SVG exports and a bilingual revision timeline to all indicator pages.

    Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed