Number of newly built apartments in China 2012-2022

In 2022, approximately 6.5 million new residential properties were built in China, representing a growth of less than 0.5 percent from the previous year.

A pillar industry

  Since the 1998 housing reform, the number of new builds kept growing for more than a decade, before reaching a peak of 7.64 million in 2012. Since then, the annual number of new apartments remained generally stable, until the gradual decline in recent years. The Chinese economy is now highly dependent on the real estate industry, with the sector contributing almost 7.4 trillion yuan to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022.

Downward pressure

  With the sector reaching a peak, and the mounting pressure over the unaffordable housing market in the country, the long-term healthy development of the Chinese economy is potentially at risk. Until 2021, China's personal housing loans had been growing at a double-digit rate every year, approaching 39 trillion yuan by 2022. High levels of indebtedness in the sector entail significant financial risks when the overall economic situation weakens, and property prices decline. The consequences are potentially damaging, both for major real estate enterprises such as Country Garden and for China's banking institutions.