China’s housing prices continued slide in January

BEIJING

Housing prices in China continued to decline in the first month of 2026 due to a broader decline in real estate investments and home sales in the country, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

China’s new and second-hand house prices fell in most large and medium-sized cities in the country last month.

New home prices fell 2.1% year-on-year in tier-one cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, 2.9% on an annual basis in some 31 large-scale tier-two cities, and 3.9% in 35 medium-sized tier-three cities, the data showed.

Shanghai was an exception among tier-one cities, as new house prices in the country’s most populous city rose 4.2% in January versus the same period last year.

Meanwhile, second-hand home prices fell 7.6% year-on-year in tier-one, 6.2% in tier-two, and 6.1% in tier-three cities.

Since April 2022, China’s new house prices have been on the decline. The post-pandemic downturn in its real estate market and debt issues in the real estate sector added pressure on housing prices.

Real estate investments in China fell 9.6% in 2023, 10.6% in 2024, and 17.2% in 2025.

Beijing lowered credit interest rates and minimum down payments to revitalize the housing market, while local governments issued various policy measures to encourage sales, such as tax reductions, deregulation, and subsidized sales, but these efforts have yet to reflect in a real, overall change in the market trend so far.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul