China Secondhand Home Prices Fall in All Major Cities for Second Month

For the first time since record-keeping began in 2011, secondhand home prices fell across all 70 of China’s major cities for two consecutive months — a sweeping downturn that underscores the persistent strain in the country’s property market and the failure of the traditional “Silver October” sales season — a typically robust period for real estate — to deliver.

In October, prices in China’s four top-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen — fell an average of 0.9% from the previous month, according to data released Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Beijing led the downturn with a 1.1% drop. Prices in 31 second-tier cities slid 0.6% on average, while those in 35 third-tier cities declined by 0.7%.

The price drops came alongside a retreat in transaction volume. Following a brief uptick in September, existing-home sales in the first-tier cities resumed their decline. In Beijing, transactions fell 23.7% from the previous month to 12,087 units, while Shanghai posted a 9.3% drop to 18,483 units, including commercial properties, according to data from China Real Estate Information. Shenzhen’s sales fell 7.7%.