Multiple Regions Deploy Second-Half Real Estate Initiatives: Driving Market Stabilization and Prioritizing Urban Renewal

Recently, provincial and municipal authorities across China have announced their work plans for the second half of the year. A systematic review reveals that, within the real estate sector, regional governments are committed both to sustaining efforts that arrest the market’s decline and to restoring equilibrium, and to making urban renewal a central focus of their forthcoming agenda.
Chen Wenjing, Policy Research Director at China Index Academy, has emphasized that stabilizing the property market is indispensable for maintaining broader macroeconomic stability. The State Council’s executive meeting on June 13 explicitly called for intensified measures to halt the housing market’s downturn and to promote a recovery, thereby providing clear policy direction to local governments. Furthermore, the Central Urban Work Conference convened recently set out new priorities for urban development, significantly elevating the importance of urban renewal. Regions nationwide are energetically translating these conference directives into high-quality renewal initiatives.

Since the start of the year, local authorities have calibrated city-specific measures to support a market rebound, achieving encouraging outcomes. Yunnan Province, for example, recorded new commercial home sales totaling 9.7847 million square meters in the first half of the year, marking a 4.0% year-on-year increase. Concurrently, inventory levels have continued to decline, with the absorption cycle for commercial residences contracting to 19 months and supply-demand conditions approaching a healthier balance.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics indicate that in the first half of the year, nationwide new commercial home sales area fell by 3.5% year-on-year—a rate of decline 15.5 percentage points narrower than during the same period in the previous year and 9.4 points narrower compared with the full year 2024. Against this backdrop, a number of regions have made consolidating the real estate market’s stabilization their primary task for the coming months.

At a special meeting on consumption promotion held on August 5, the Jiangsu Provincial Government called for continued efforts to arrest the property market’s slide, to advance high-quality urban renewal, to expand the supply of “quality housing,” and to build on the successes of housing voucher and resettlement programs in order to better unlock consumer demand for housing.

Similarly, at a July 28 press briefing on Yunnan’s first-half economic performance, Huang Yuan, Deputy Director of Yunnan’s Department of Housing and Urban–Rural Development, announced plans to promote an overall balance between supply and demand, to optimize market structure, to stabilize prices, and to foster healthy development. At the July 17 mid-year economic analysis meeting in Guangdong Province, officials likewise reaffirmed the need for sustained action to stabilize the real estate market in the second half of the year.

To stimulate demand, Chen Wenjing suggests that local governments are likely to expand housing-voucher placements in urban-village renovation projects and strengthen home-purchase subsidies. Further gains could be achieved by perfecting “quality housing” construction standards, clarifying floor-area-ratio regulations, and extending stronger land and financial support—steps that would unlock latent housing demand through an enhanced supply framework.

Urban renewal, recognized as a critical lever for driving high-quality urban development and expanding domestic demand, has emerged as a top priority for the second half of the year. On July 20, Ma Jian, Party Secretary and Director of the Henan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, stated at a Henan Provincial Government press conference that the province will rigorously implement the Central Urban Work Conference’s directives. Henan plans to strengthen the coordination mechanism for the Zhengzhou metropolitan area, to launch a three-year action plan for key urban renewal projects, to expedite construction of lifeline infrastructure, and to steadily advance the renovation of urban villages and dilapidated housing—ensuring that its cities embody both height and warmth.

The Guangdong meeting similarly stressed the faithful implementation of the Central Urban Work Conference’s spirit, calling for the promotion of high-quality urban development and the steady advancement of urban-village and aging neighborhood renovations. Zhang Bo, Director of the 58 Anjuke Research Institute, has characterized urban renewal as the principal vehicle for transforming the existing housing stock and upgrading living standards. Renovation measures—such as installing elevators, conducting age-friendly adaptations, and remediating urban villages—not only alleviate inventory pressures but also activate demand for improved housing.

Several provinces are integrating urban renewal into their investment promotion strategies. At a July 28 investment-promotion meeting, the Jiangsu Provincial Government called for accelerating urban renewal initiatives to generate additional investment. Zhang Bo observed that investment driven by urban renewal has a pronounced multiplier effect: in 2024, China’s total urban renewal investment reached approximately RMB 2.9 trillion, spurring rapid growth in equipment procurement, building-materials consumption, and related industries. He anticipates further opportunities in fields such as embedding dining and leisure formats within historic and cultural district revitalizations.

Looking ahead, Chen Wenjing expects that forthcoming land-use and financial policies in support of urban renewal will provide further assistance. She advises that local governments should fully leverage national policy frameworks while conducting thorough assessments of their urban-renewal potential, deploying targeted incentives, encouraging private capital participation, and actively exploring renewal models tailored to regional conditions