China’s new-home prices decline faster in July, raising concerns about never-ending property downturn

China’s new-home prices dropped at a faster clip in July, extending a property downturn that has now ground on for more than three years with little sign of bottoming out. The acceleration in price declines comes despite a steady drip of government stimulus measures aimed at propping up a sector that, at its peak, accounted for roughly a quarter of China’s GDP. Three years of falling prices, and counting In June 2026, the most recent month with full data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, new-home prices across 70 major cities fell 0.15% month-on-month and 3.3% year-on-year. That marked the 36th consecutive month of price contraction. July’s acceleration means the streak now extends to 37 months, or just over three full years of uninterrupted decline. The secondary market looks even worse. Resale prices across 100 cities dropped 0.42% month-on-month in June, nearly three times the pace of the new-home decline. Breaking it down by city tier reveals that nowhere is safe. First-tier cities saw prices fall 6.95% year-on-year. Second-tier cities dropped 8.21%. Third and fourth-tier cities declined 7.48%. Real residential property prices have now fallen to an index level of 85.1...