China News Service, Beijing, October 19 (Reporter Wang Mengyao) The National Bureau of Statistics released the economic "report card" for the third quarter on the 19th. At the "Economic Situation Analysis Meeting for the Third Quarter of 2026" held on the day of China News Service's National Economic Express, Wu Jing, director of the Real Estate Research Center of Tsinghua University, pointed out that if combined with the operation of the second-hand housing market and the sales price changes of commercial housing in 70 large and medium-sized cities released earlier, as well as the formulation, implementation and introduction of a series of new policies in the third quarter, positive factors for the stabilization of the real estate field are constantly accumulating.
The short-term perspective can be summarized as "the stock is stabilizing". Judging from the sales situation, Wu Jing said that the real estate sales area across the country is changing from mainly incremental to mainly stock, and this change is irreversible.
Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on the 19th showed that from January to September, the area of online second-hand housing transactions was 617.46 million square meters, a year-on-year increase of 10.7%.
"The overall stable transaction size reflects that residents' reasonable housing demand is in the process of continued release, and it also provides support for subsequent stabilization of prices and further improvement in market expectations." Wu Jing said.
In terms of prices, judging from the sales price changes of commercial housing in 70 large and medium-sized cities in September, we can see that the overall price decline is narrowing, both month-on-month and year-on-year. Prices in first-tier cities have shown a series of positive changes, especially the sales prices of second-hand housing in first-tier cities; in addition, the year-on-year decline in housing prices in first-, second- and third-tier cities has generally narrowed.
He said that this also reflects that the momentum of stabilization in the price dimension has further continued.
The rebalancing of supply and demand in the market is also continuing. Wu Jing said that the unsold inventory of commercial housing in many cities and the overall area for sale have simultaneously declined significantly. The number of listings in the second-hand housing market in some major first- and second-tier cities such as Beijing and Wuhan is in the process of falling, which shows that the rebalancing of market supply and demand in the new and second-hand housing markets is moving in a healthier direction.
In addition, significant progress has been made in the construction of a new model of real estate development. Wu Jing said that on August 28, a series of basic documents to build a new model of real estate development were released at the same time. The important basic system of the new model of real estate development has basically been formed, which not only provides basic institutional conditions for real estate development and the operation of the new home market for a long time to come, but also provides stronger protection for home buyers from a short-term perspective.
On September 20, the newly revised "Housing Provident Fund Management Regulations" were officially implemented, further broadening the scope of withdrawal and use of provident funds. The interest discount policy for residents' home purchase loans launched on September 29 marks the first time that interest discounts on home purchase loans are implemented at the central level. These policies are gradually forming a synergy from the basic system and the demand side, and are effective in a coordinated manner.
He said: "In the past few years, we have been working on the construction of 'good houses' to make residents 'want to buy a house.' Our new model, which focuses on the sale of existing homes, makes residents 'dare to buy a house.' The improvement of the provident fund system and financial discounts have given residents families a higher and stronger ability to buy a house. Such coherence of policies will help transform potential demand into actual home buying behavior."
