Floor space of completed buildings in China 1998-2024
In 2024, real estate developers in China completed 737.43 million square meters of floor space, representing a significant drop of almost 28 percent from the previous year. Housing completion figures in China have generally decreased over the last decade, owing to structural challenges in the real estate industry.
The ups and downs of the Chinese real estate market
Following the marketization of the housing sector in the late 1990s, China's real estate industry has enjoyed more than two decades of prosperity. The output value of the sector multiplied several times, with home prices rising sharply across the country and some properties in urban centers such as Beijing and Shanghai being among the most expensive in the world. While being a pillar industry in the country’s economy, the real estate sector has also stimulated the development of many related industries, such as construction and financial services.
The property bubble and unfinished buildings
The former expansion of the housing market had created a considerable bubble in the sector, which finally burst during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many apartments, especially the tower blocks in small or medium-sized cities and towns remained unsold or left unoccupied, leading to financial turmoil for real estate developers. The failure of major market players such as China Evergrande and Country Garden resulted in more than a million unfinished apartments in China.
