They've been watching the market for a while now, asking if they're going to regret it, if it's going to go up, if it's going to fall, if it's money, if it's too late
Some of the changes have been written in the data, not by emotional speculation, by trade and policy rhythms, and many people still judge the new market in the old way, making it easier to invest in their own homes, to treat cities as a building house and interest rates as a house price
According to the national statistical office, 70 large and medium-sized cities have seen a narrowing of the price chain, with a reduction of 0. 4 per cent to 0. 5 per cent in second-hand homes in first-line cities and 0. 1 per cent to 0. 3 per cent in second-line cities
Some people are just looking at the area, thinking that the old city is stable, that the reality is more direct, that buyers ask the property first, then the age of the building, then look at the management of the district, that the area is still important, that the residential experience begins to be priced, that the house goes from place to detail, and that the price goes from price to price
In the first-line cities, part of the good estate sector is more than 10 per cent higher than the difference. This is not a propaganda term. It's a gap between the buyer's votes, the estate's running, the elevators are clean, the public area is clean, the dispute is low, the price is better
The accompanying weights are also changing, with more popular neighbourhoods with old-age facilities and childcare services, rising demand for green smart housing and marginalizing the poor housing supply. Such changes are more critical for ordinary people, many of whom think they are choosing their own house, and are choosing the cost of living for the next decade
People ask whether it's a quality premium, and when it's opened, it's clear that quality leads to low maintenance, low disputes, low space, less accommodation, less time, less time, less time, less trouble, less time, less money, less money, more money, more money
The change in urban disparities is even more pronounced, with people and industries on the floor of the building market, where young people come in, where there's a bottom line, there's little space, there's a more complete chain, there's no one, there's just a few numbers
Since january 2026, beijing has registered more than 14,000 second-hand rooms in consecutive months, nearly 16,000 in february, or 24 per cent in comparison with the same year, shanghai used rooms have declined for 9 months, and the turnover has increased by 24. 18 per cent, shenzhen has had 5242 second-hand rooms in february, 5,000 wires in 11 months, an increase of 12. 6 per cent, and guangzhou has been steadily rising, showing that trades in the core cities have begun
Trades move first, prices have a chance to stabilize, prices are seen by many as the only signal, the changes in the trades and the listings are ignored, the numbers are down and the numbers are up, which means that sellers don't go out in panic, buyers don't wait at all, markets are at a standstill
The second-line performance is more industry-driven, cities with a strong internet industry like hangzhou, young people, stable rental demand, greater concentration of improved demand, easier prices of ballast rock, stable population of the second-line population, industry in general, more cross-board grinding, and time to digest stock pressure
The three and four lines are more realistic, with the impact of net outflows taking place on a long-term basis, with the denuclearization cycle exceeding 24 or 30 months, the weak mobility of non-core areas, the small number of buyers to sell, the fact that prices do not necessarily fall, the difficulty is that money is locked, and many families are under pressure from this
Some understand this difference as a matter of luck, which is a matter of choice. Cities determine the thickness of demand, demand determines the continuity of the deal, deal determines the resilience of prices, resilience determines whether you can get out at a critical time
Supply and demand structures are also being rewritten; the new house is no longer the only one, with a ratio of 1. 8 to 1 for second-hand rooms in priority cities and 2 to 1 for first-line cities, and according to ray's data, in 2025 the country's second-hand room was close to 750 million square metres, and the second-hand room has become the main market force, which directly alters the path to buying houses
Second-hand houses become dominant, which means more choice, more bargaining space, and more picky buyers, and their shortcomings are magnified and their advantages priced. Many people used to look at models, and now learn to look at real neighbourhoods, real buildings, real neighborhoods, real property
The supply side is also shrinking, residential land is tight, new construction has been reduced, the government is using special debt to buy stock, convert it into a secure house and a talent house, go to stock and keep people alive, secure housing supply is expected to increase by 30 per cent over the same period, cover new citizens and young people, and the market has become more visible
The result is two parallel paths, a budgetful pursuit of the quality of a commodity house, a budget-restricted installation of a home with a secure house, which is not a good or bad, but a different solution to different needs. Many families used to squeeze into a commodity house, pressure was placed on the monthly supply, and now have a more stable option
The level of policy has also been even more modest, with interest rates on first-rate mortgages ranging from 2. 95 per cent to 3. 0 per cent, some cities having lower interest rates of 1. 75 per cent to 2. 05 per cent, down payment rates of 20 per cent, higher levels of public capitalization, easier off-site loans, declining transaction taxes, vat exemption from 5 years to 2 years, and re-entry tax policies extending to the end of 2027, which are not slogans, but figures directly affecting the books
Many focus on house prices and ignore cost changes, interest rate reductions and tax breaks change total expenditure, monthly cuts, more stable cash flows, lower replacement costs, easier start-up of improved chains, and markets tend to be repaired not by overnight reversals, but by a single cost
There are concerns that policies will get warmer, that reality will be more rational, that the tone will be smoother back to stability, that the focus will be on supporting people who really need housing, that investment needs will be treated more cautiously, and that the direction of the market will be more like a low-pressure trade
There is also a convergence of views among the institutions, with goldman sachs considering 2026 as a watershed, stopping the collapse of the core of the first line, and ending the country's deep decline. China is analysing the routing of the second-hand house in shanghai in beijing to a reasonable level
There's a more straightforward judgement behind the consensus that prices will be more selective, that houses will not rise or fall together, that many people will call it split, that ordinary people will understand it better, that houses will start to settle on the basis of residential value, that they will be priced on the basis of urban fundamentals and that they will be discounted on the basis of mobility
The fact that after four years of readjustment, second-hand house prices fell by 39 per cent over their peak, new construction fell by 74 per cent, the depth of the readjustment exceeded the international norm, the median rent return of 2. 06 per cent was higher than bank deposits, which together meant that prices and supplies had experienced hard pressure and markets were moving from overextension to more sustainable conditions
There are some details to remember that some of the plates show land prices that are higher than second-hand house prices, lower listings, improved supply and demand, changes that do not allow all houses to take off, but that make quality housing more stressful, more difficult to sell, and that many families have future gaps that are not bought and not bought, but are able to move smoothly
The family needs to be more concerned about when it's appropriate, the answer is not at the single point of time, and in your city and your house, the core city's high-quality plates are more stable, the average second line is more subdued, the 3rd and 4th line is more focused on the flow of people and the stock cycle, the home is more focused on commuters, education, medical care, property, and investment is higher on mobility
The comment section can say what kind of city you belong to, whether you care about the area or the property, whether your goal is to live or replace, and many of your judgments are meaningful in the specific city and the smaller, and the more specific the information is, the more you avoid emotional miscalculation
The purchase of a house is becoming more like an exercise, data is pointing in the right direction, policies are lowering costs, cities are opening up gaps, houses are being revalued, and people who can separate residential needs and asset attributes are often less able to walk the curve
