China’s property market continues to face significant challenges with steep declines in sales, investment, and profitability, raising new doubts about the state media’s narrative of a gradual recovery.
According to data released on July 31 by the China Index Academy, total sales by the country’s top 100 real estate developers reached 2.07 trillion yuan ($285 billion) in the first seven months of 2025—down 13.3 percent year-over-year. The pace of decline has accelerated, widening by 1.5 percentage points compared with the first half of the year. In July alone, sales dropped 18.2 percent from a year earlier.