China’s property sector is showing positive changes and market confidence is improving, its housing minister said on Sunday, as policymakers try to set a more optimistic tone for the economy this year in the face of mounting U.S. trade pressure.
The comments come after several tough years for the once high-flying real estate sector, with property investment slumping the most on record last year and property sales and new construction falling at a double-digit pace, weighing heavily on economic growth.
At a press conference on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting in Beijing, housing minister Ni Hong said that “since January and February, the real estate market maintained a positive trend of stopping declines and returning to stabilisation.”
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China will not release early 2025 figures for housing sales and starts until March 17, but analysts at Nomura said in a recent note that sales and prices early this year were holding up better than expected in China’s biggest cities.
Still, analysts polled by Reuters last month expect home prices to drop further this year and do not expect a market recovery until 2026.
Some analysts estimate average home prices have slumped by 20-30% since a peak in August 2021.
That sparked severe cash crunches and led to incomplete projects, developer debt defaults and even public protests by homebuyers, hammering market sentiment.
Signs of stabilisation or even a mild rebound in the property market could help cushion China’s economy from the impact of mounting U.S. trade tariffs on Chinese goods.
Source: Reuters
