Property market making strides toward stabilization, expert says

China's property market made major progress in its recovery in 2025, with its transition path becoming clearer and providing a firm foundation for market stability, an expert said on Monday.

During a forum on 2026's economic outlook hosted by China News Service, Wu Jing, head of the center for real estate at Tsinghua University, said that market stabilization depends on the completion of the recovery process and greater clarity in the sector's transformation.

Looking ahead to 2026 and the period of the 15th Five-Year Plan, Wu said?basic housing demand, and improvement-related demand remains present, with some cities seeing relatively strong demand. He added that China further improved its policy toolkit for the property sector in 2025, creating a more supportive environment for market stabilization.

"Under this background and framework, we are confident the market will continue to stabilize in 2026," Wu said.

From a short-cycle perspective, Wu said the property market experienced several fluctuations in 2025, but maintained an overall trend toward stabilization, reflected in a number of positive signals.

He said combined sales of new and existing homes in the first 11 months of 2025 showed a clear stabilizing trend, with some major cities recording slight year-on-year growth. Sales stabilization, he noted, typically precedes price stabilization.

Wu said market differentiation continued to widen across cities and regions — including in the land market. Areas with faster-growing new economic drivers and lower supply and inventory pressure were more active, while city-specific and targeted local policies shaped variations in prices, transactions, and land activity.

Policy efforts to control new supply delivered greater results in 2025, Wu said. Indicators reflecting new construction scale — including real estate development investment and new starts — declined during the year and may continue to do so in 2026, reflecting deliberate supply-side measures aimed at promoting overall market stability.

Destocking measures also began to show results. By the end of November, the nationwide area of unsold commercial housing had fallen by about 3 million square meters from the end of October, as supply controls and measures to support rigid and upgrade demand started to work together, Wu said.

From a longer-term perspective, Wu said the property market is gradually taking shape amid its transformation. Continued efforts to ensure the delivery of pre-sold homes helped concentrate risk resolution in 2025, supporting social and economic stability and laying a sound foundation for future development.

He added that debt restructuring at some property developers achieved positive progress, forming an important part of the broader market recovery.

At the same time, new development models and growth drivers are becoming clearer, Wu said. The sector is returning to its livelihood-oriented role, with "good homes" emerging as a key theme in 2025, as developers increasingly recognize this as a key growth point. Urban renewal, he added, will also create new development opportunities for traditional industries, including real estate and construction.