China is stepping up efforts to adapt its housing policies to a property market increasingly dominated by existing homes, with the focus shifting from large-scale expansion toward upgrading housing stock, improving transaction rules and better meeting residents’ changing housing needs.
The country’s property market has entered a “stock era”, while urban development is also moving from large-scale incremental expansion to improving the quality and efficiency of existing assets, said Chen Shaowang, vice-minister of housing and urban-rural development, at a news conference on Friday.
According to Chen’s ministry, preowned homes accounted for 52 percent of housing transactions in the first eight months of this year, up from 46 percent in 2025 and 27 percent in 2020.
“A share above 50 percent signals that the market has entered a stock-dominated phase,” said Zhang Xuetao, head of the ministry’s real estate market supervision department.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), the country will accelerate efforts to build a new model for property development while balancing risk prevention with transformation, and people’s livelihoods with stable growth, Zhang added.
One response is to extend provident fund support across different stages of people’s housing needs. A revised regulation taking effect on Sunday will allow self-employed people, part-time workers and other flexible workers to voluntarily participate in the system.
It also expands the number of circumstances in which funds can be withdrawn from six to nine. Residents will be able to use the funds for purposes including home renovation and property management fees, Zhang said, as authorities seek to make the system better serve renting, purchasing, repairing and maintaining homes.
For aging housing, authorities will use different approaches based on safety assessments. Buildings deemed seriously unsafe can be demolished and rebuilt, while others can be repaired or partly upgraded through measures such as prefabricated interior renovation, elderly-friendly improvements and smart-home upgrades, the ministry said.
The effort builds on large-scale urban renewal in recent years. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), more than 240,000 old urban residential communities were renovated, benefiting over 110 million people, according to the ministry.
The pace will continue during the 2026-30 period, when China plans to start renovations of 115,000 old urban residential communities, carry out complete upgrades in 5,000 communities and renovate or install 575,000 residential elevators.
Alongside improvements to existing homes, the ministry will tighten safeguards for buyers of newly built properties.
Each development should have an independent project company, Zhang said, with project funds held by a designated bank or banking syndicate and protected against improper diversion by developers’ headquarters.
The moves are in line with broader efforts to strengthen oversight of presale funds while promoting sales of completed homes.
To protect buyers during the period from payment to handover, a notice jointly issued by three central departments in August requires down payments, mortgage proceeds and other purchase funds to be placed in regulated accounts. It also promotes “handover with certificate”, allowing buyers to receive ownership certificates when they take possession of their homes.
In addition, property projects should give priority to sales of completed homes. For projects that continue to use presales, individual buildings must have their main structures topped out, while buyers’ down payments and mortgage funds must be placed in designated regulatory accounts, according to the notice.