In April this year, average new house prices in 100 major cities in China amounted to RMB 17,129/square meter ($2,497/sq.m.), up 0.08 percent month on month, while rising by 2.18 percent year on year, as announced by CIA, the largest independent property research organization in China.
Meanwhile, in April, the average second-hand house prices in the 100 major Chinese cities amounted to RMB 12,733/square meter ($1,856/sq.m.), down 0.46 percent month on month, 0.12 percentage points faster than the decline recorded in March this year, while down 8.34 percent year on year, 0.21 percentage points slower than the year-on-year decline recorded in the previous month.
In the new residential house segment, the pace of launching of improvement-oriented property projects accelerated in April in key cities-such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, supporting the month-on-month structural uptrend in average new house prices among the 100 major cities in China.
According to the forecast by CIA, local governments will accelerate the implementation of various supportive measures in the second quarter. On the demand side, China has issued policies to optimize public housing funds and home purchase subsidies. Meanwhile, on the supply side, China will continue to promote the acquisition of existing commercial housing and idle land, while improving support policies for the construction of quality housing.
The construction sector's total share in China’s steel consumption amounted to 49 percent in 2025, including steel usage in both real estate projects and infrastructure. Some tentative signs of improvement seen in April are unlikely to change the downtrend seen in the market and to support better steel consumption. However, on the other hand, such improvement may prevent steel consumption in the real estate sector from falling at the high pace seen in the past few years.