According to data monitoring from the China Index Academy, August 2026 marked the traditional slow season for the housing market, with second-hand home transaction volumes in key cities edging down from the previous month, although they continued to expand on a year-over-year basis. The average price of second-hand residences across 100 cities stood at 12,527 yuan per square meter, down 0.45% month-over-month, with the decline widening by 0.01 percentage points from the prior month. Looking at the breakdown of price movements, seven cities recorded increases from the previous month, while 93 cities saw declines.

In the new home segment, several key cities including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Tianjin continued to launch premium residential projects in August, which kept the average new home price in the 100 surveyed cities rising structurally from the prior month. The average price of newly built residences reached 17,255 yuan per square meter, up 0.15% month-over-month and 2.04% year-over-year. In the rental market, as the pace of housing rental demand release moderated, the average rental price increase in key cities narrowed during August. The average residential rent across 50 cities was 34.02 yuan per square meter per month, edging up 0.03% month-over-month but falling 2.45% year-over-year.

Examining the second-hand market by tier, first-tier, second-tier, and third- and fourth-tier cities saw month-over-month price declines of 0.35%, 0.54%, and 0.41%, respectively, in August. The month-over-month declines in first-tier and second-tier cities widened by 0.10 and 0.09 percentage points, respectively, compared with the previous month, while third- and fourth-tier cities saw their monthly decline narrow by 0.07 percentage points. On a year-over-year basis, prices in first-tier, second-tier, and third- and fourth-tier cities dropped 6.43%, 7.56%, and 6.86%, respectively.

Although the real estate market was in its traditional off-peak season in August, the second-hand housing segment retained a degree of activity, with Beijing and Shanghai both recording year-over-year growth in resale home volumes for six consecutive months. According to data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, from January to August, the cumulative contracted area of national second-hand home transactions reached 549.23 million square meters, climbing 10.6% year-over-year, demonstrating notable resilience in the market. However, the sustained growth in transaction volumes has yet to translate into price stabilization, as the monthly price decline across the top ten cities widened from the previous month. Based on the China Real Estate Index System's 100-city price index, in August 2026, the average price of second-hand residences in the 100 surveyed cities dropped 0.45% month-over-month and 7.08% year-over-year, while the average price in the top ten cities fell 0.46% month-over-month and 7.14% year-over-year.

On the policy front at the local level, Beijing relaxed its purchase restrictions, reducing the social security or personal income tax requirement for non-local households purchasing within the Fifth Ring Road from two years to one year. Beijing, Shanghai, and several other localities optimized their provident fund policies, with Beijing raising the maximum loan amount for first-home purchases to 3.4 million yuan, and Shanghai allowing the use of provident fund withdrawals to pay the down payment for existing new commercial housing units. Meanwhile, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Haikou, and others issued home purchase subsidies. Jiangsu, Xiamen, and other regions rolled out documents related to urban renewal, while Hefei, Zhengzhou, and others implemented policies to activate existing housing stock, with Hefei permitting the conversion of land use types for existing industrial, commercial, and logistics warehousing sites. Additionally, in August, provinces and cities such as Guangdong and Chongqing issued approximately 47.4 billion yuan in special bonds to repurchase and acquire idle and unutilized land.

At the city level, Beijing recorded 13,853 second-hand home transactions in August, up 3.9% year-over-year. From January to August, the city's cumulative second-hand home transactions reached 121,000 units, up 5.9% year-over-year. In terms of pricing, the average price of second-hand homes in Beijing dropped 0.59% month-over-month in August, with the monthly decline widening by 0.02 percentage points from the previous month, and down 8.78% year-over-year. Shanghai saw 20,433 second-hand home transactions, marking an 18.4% year-over-year gain. For the January-to-August period, cumulative transactions in Shanghai reached 171,000 units, up 15.3% year-over-year. On pricing, the average listing price of second-hand homes in Shanghai inched down 0.03% month-over-month and fell 5.03% year-over-year, with the annual decline narrowing by 0.44 percentage points from the prior month. In Guangzhou, the average price of second-hand homes slipped 0.62% month-over-month, with the monthly drop widening by 0.13 percentage points, and 7.64% lower year-over-year, with the annual decline narrowing by 0.17 percentage points. Shenzhen recorded 4,275 second-hand home transactions in August, up 2.4% year-over-year, while cumulative transactions over the first eight months totaled 38,000 units, a slight 0.1% dip year-over-year. Regarding prices, in August 2026, the average price of second-hand homes in Shenzhen decreased 0.25% month-over-month, with the monthly decline expanding by 0.14 percentage points, and down 4.63% year-over-year.