The wave of property management companies abandoning their services is sweeping in: saving 3,000 yuan in property fees, only to lose the down payment on the house

You think you're saving on property management fees, but in fact, you're losing the down payment for a house.

Recently, have you noticed that the advertisements in the elevator of your residential complex suddenly stopped lighting up? The lights in the corridors are broken and no one fixes them. And those property managers who used to chase after you to collect fees are now out of reach, as if they've vanished into thin air?

Don't get too excited. This isn't the property management having a conscience and leaving you alone. It's a nationwide "great retreat" of property management companies.

There was a time when they were called the "landlords who make money lying down." Now, they've become the "runaways" who bolt at the first sign of trouble.

In 2025, over 1,200 property management companies quietly deregistered. In just the first three months of 2026, another 400 declared bankruptcy. At this rate, by the end of the year, two thousand property management companies will completely disappear in the cold winter.

This isn't just someone else's news. It's the reality that you and I will soon face.

When the property management staff turn into strangers and the residential complex becomes an isolated island, can the keys to your home still unlock the sense of security that comes with "home"?

01

Working in property management is no longer appealing

At 5:10 p.m. on December 31, 2025, it was lightly snowing in a small city in the northwest.

Yaoyao shut down the property management office system, took off her employee ID from around her neck, and stuffed it into her frayed canvas bag. Without saying goodbye to the receptionist, she zipped up her down jacket and stepped into the twilight.

Just then, a pop - up message appeared in the bottom - right corner of her computer screen: "The days when property management companies could make money effortlessly are over." She glanced at it, twitched the corner of her mouth slightly, and said nothing.

On her resignation form, she neatly wrote four words: "Taking care of family." It was a decent and safe excuse.

Only she knew how insincere those words were. For her, with an elderly family and young children to take care of, there were only two reasons for giving up a stable job she had held for five years: The pay was not enough, and she felt wronged.

Photo | Yaoyao's desk after five years of work, now completely cleared

Yaoyao had both problems.

She earned a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan, had a single day off per week, and was provided with one work meal. In a small county, this income wasn't too bad.

She was in charge of an old residential complex that was twenty years old. The property management fee was 0.30 yuan per square meter. For a 100 - square - meter apartment, the annual fee was only 360 yuan, and at most, a household paid a little over 500 yuan.

But this small amount of money became her nightmare.

The company set a collection target every month: 50% of the planned collection amount must be completed before the 15th of the month. If not, employees had to work overtime without pay.

As a naturally socially - anxious person, she would take a deep breath before calling each homeowner and silently recite the line she had memorized countless times: "Hello, I'm from the property management of the residential complex. I'd like to confirm your property management fee..."

Most of the time, she would hear the busy tone of "beep - beep - ". Occasionally, when someone answered, they would often just say "I don't have the money now. Stop bothering me" and hang up.

There were signs as early as the beginning of 2025.

She thought it was because she was bad at communicating, so she specifically searched for "property management fee collection scripts" and "how to communicate effectively with homeowners", wrote down the key points in a small notebook, and practiced for half a month.

Photo | Hand - written notebook: Property management fee collection scripts

At the end of the month, when she checked the accounts, she still didn't meet the target and still had to stay at work until 8 or 9 p.m. without pay.

After being hung up on, being perfunctorily treated, and being treated like a "debt collector" many times, she finally admitted that it wasn't a communication problem. This job just wasn't suitable for her.

Flashback to five years ago:

That was the last golden period for the property management industry. Between 2019 and 2020, 18 property service companies were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising over 10 billion yuan in total.

When Yaoyao first joined the company, she wore a dark - blue work uniform and forced a professional smile at the homeowners who came to pay their fees. The banner at the main entrance of the residential complex fluttered in the wind, saying "Property management makes the city and life better." Some retired uncles voluntarily swept the fallen leaves and trimmed the dead branches. Everything seemed bustling.

Now, the invisible line between life and death is clearly on the table: The industry experience shows that the collection rate must reach over 80% to barely cover the basic operating costs.

But the reality is that in 2025, the average collection rate of the top 500 property service companies in the country was 71.00%, a decline for the fourth consecutive year. Small and medium - sized property management companies generally had a collection rate lower than 65.00%. [Source: China Index Academy's "Research Report on the Top 100 Property Service Enterprises in China in 2026"]

In other words, most residential complexes haven't even reached the passing line to "survive".

As more and more high - rise buildings are being built, fewer and fewer people are willing to pay for property management services.

On the day Yaoyao submitted her resignation form, the cleaning aunt asked her, "Girl, will you still be on duty during the Spring Festival?" She said no.

As she turned around and walked out of the residential complex gate, she glanced at the guard post. The lights were still on, but she wondered if there would still be someone sitting there next year.

02

Why don't this generation of homeowners want to pay property management fees anymore?

"Dear homeowner, your property management fees for 2019 - 2025 have not been settled. Please go to the service center to make up the payment as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation."

On May 8th, in Suzhou. At 6:30 p.m., the sky was slightly rosy.

Tian Mi came back from overtime work. As she took out her keys to open the door, she noticed out of the corner of her eye an A4 paper notice pasted on the anti - theft door of her opposite neighbor. The toner was a bit faint, and the edges were starting to curl up.

She stared at the line "2019 - 2025" for two seconds. This apartment was delivered in 2018, and she had hardly ever seen this neighbor. In other words, the neighbor hadn't lived in the apartment for seven years and hadn't paid the property management fees for seven years either.

She casually took a photo and posted it on her WeChat Moments, saying "Can someone really not pay property management fees for seven years?"

Unexpectedly, this post stirred up a storm.

Zhou Jing, a mother of two in Suzhou, rushed to the comment section immediately and said, "I bought an apartment in my hometown in Henan, but I only stay there for a few days a year. I asked them to give me a discount, but they wouldn't budge. So I just stopped paying."

Soon, the comment section turned into a "complaint session about vacant apartments" -

"No one lives there, and no services are enjoyed. Why should I pay the full amount?"

"Even a 10% discount is unreasonable!"

At this time, a lawyer friend left a comment. His tone was calm but firm:

"According to the Property Management Regulations and the property service agreement in the purchase contract, the vacancy of a house is the homeowner's personal choice and does not constitute a legal reason to refuse to pay property management fees. As long as the property management services are provided normally, the obligation to pay fees still exists." [Source: Articles 7 and 41 of the Property Management Regulations (Decree No. 698 of the State Council)]

But the dam of rationality couldn't hold back the flood of emotions.

Yaoyao lives in a resettlement community in Xuzhou. In the summer of 2025, she realized that she seemed to be the only one in the whole building who was paying the property management fees on time. Others were using the elevators and the street lights as usual, seemingly getting the services for free.

What really broke her was a heavy rain.

In August last year, a sudden downpour flooded the residential complex. The turbid sewage seeped into her living room and kitchen through the door cracks.

She called the property management, but the line was always busy. She called the police, but they couldn't figure out who was responsible.

It wasn't until the next morning that the property management staff showed up leisurely.

After checking for a long time, they found that the sewage drain in an unsold and vacant apartment on the second floor was blocked. There was more than 30 centimeters of fecal water accumulated in the room, which was seeping through the cracks in the floor and dripping into Yaoyao's apartment drop by drop.

The pipeline was finally unblocked, but who would compensate for the floor, furniture, and walls that had been soaked in fecal water overnight?

The property management pushed the responsibility to the housing management bureau, the housing management bureau asked the developer, and the developer kicked the ball back to the property management.

Yaoyao was physically and mentally exhausted and has never paid a single cent of property management fees since then.

In the Hangzhou Bay area of Zhejiang, A Feng was worried about another bill.

In 2018, when housing prices were soaring, he and his wife gritted their teeth and took out a 20 - year mortgage to buy a 117 - square - meter three - bedroom apartment.

Now, the housing price has almost been halved, but the property management fee of 2.60 yuan per square meter has not decreased at all. In total, the annual property management fee is nearly 4,000 yuan. Coupled with the 300 - yuan monthly parking space management fee, the annual fixed expenditure is approaching 8,000 yuan.

As a person who goes to work early and comes home late, he hardly ever sets foot in the gym, reading room, or activity center in the residential complex more than twice a year.

For those who need a house for their own use, they can't sell the house, and the property management fee is like an endless pit.

After losing his job at the beginning of the year, he seriously considered for the first time: The mortgage will be paid off in twelve years. When will the property management fees end?

A Feng doesn't know that what he is facing is not the "local policy" of a single property management company, but the deeply - rooted capital logic of the entire industry.

In 2025, the average gross profit margin of the top 100 property service companies was only 20.00%, and the net profit margin was even lower, at 7.31%. [Source: China Index Academy's "Research Report on the Top 100 Property Service Enterprises in China in 2026"]

Although property management is nominally a service industry, behind it is the profit - seeking instinct of capital - Only by continuously expanding the management area can the financial statements look good. As for the long - term service quality, it is often not a top priority.

During the upward cycle of the real estate market, this model could barely work. But when housing prices fall, employment becomes unstable, and residents' disposable income is under pressure, the property management fee collection rate starts to decline, and the capital logic hits the wall of reality.