In the first half of the property market, seven dark horses emerged.

The "mid - term exam" report cards of real estate enterprises in the first half of 2026 are out.

According to CRIC data, the single - month equity sales volume of typical real estate enterprises in June reached 232.54 billion yuan, a month - on - month increase of 2.3%. The cumulative equity sales volume in the first half of the year was 1.09073 trillion yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 16.2%, and the decline has been narrowing for several consecutive months.

Behind the data, a special change is worth noting - small and medium - sized private real estate enterprises focusing on local markets have witnessed explosive growth.

Specifically:

Among the top 10 real estate enterprises in terms of the increase in equity sales volume in the first half of the year, 7 enterprises had a year - on - year increase of over 100%.

Among them, private enterprise Longxiang Holdings Group took the lead with an increase of 206.8%. State - owned enterprise China Construction Jihe followed closely with a high growth rate of 204.9%.

The growth rates of Tian'an Investment, Liantai Real Estate, Tianjian Group, Baohua Group, and Hongfa Group were all over 100%. Among the top 10 in terms of growth rate, 8 were private enterprises.

Industry analysts believe that small and medium - sized real estate enterprises focusing on local markets have seized the market window period in the first half of the year by relying on a flexible rhythm of property launches and a precise grasp of local rigid - demand and improved products. As a local state - owned enterprise on the list, Tianjian Group achieved a 154.5% growth through the concentrated delivery of urban renewal projects. Overall, the growth momentum of small and medium - sized private real estate enterprises focusing on local markets is significantly better than that of large - scale real estate enterprises.

Different from the "rapid development" of the dark horses, the competition among the leading real estate enterprises has become extremely fierce.

In terms of full - caliber sales volume, there are only 3 enterprises in the 100 - billion - yuan camp - Poly Developments with 135.1 billion yuan, China Overseas Land & Investment with 134.35 billion yuan, and China Resources Land with 116.5 billion yuan. The gap between Poly and China Overseas has narrowed to only 750 million yuan.

In terms of equity sales volume, China Overseas Land & Investment overtook Poly Developments with 123.6 billion yuan and won the top spot on the equity list. The gap in equity sales volume between the two has widened to 17.1 billion yuan. China Resources and China Merchants basically remained in the third and fourth positions. The top 10 real estate enterprises in the full - caliber ranking shuffled, and Greenland entered the tenth place, ranking eighth with 32.3 billion yuan.

Among the top 10 real estate enterprises, 4 had a year - on - year positive growth in cumulative equity sales volume, and 3 of them were state - owned enterprises - China Overseas Land & Investment had a year - on - year growth of 11.8%, China Resources Land had an increase of 9.5%, and China Jinmao had a growth of 7.8%.

Judging from the performance of real estate enterprises of different natures, state - owned enterprises have the most stable foundation. The proportion of state - owned enterprises with positive growth in equity sales volume in the first 6 months reached 36.3%, nearly 40%, which is the highest among all types of enterprises.

The Matthew effect has strongly returned in this round of adjustment. According to a report from the CRIC Research Center, the CR10 within the sample of 50 real estate enterprises has continuously risen from the low of 50% in 2021 to 75.1% in the first half of 2026, and the CR20 has risen to 90.8% during the same period - which means that the top 20 enterprises in the sample account for over 90% of the total sales volume, and the remaining 30 enterprises only account for less than 10%.

Meanwhile, the heat in the land market has gone against the trend. According to incomplete statistics, in the land transactions through public tender, auction, and listing in 36 first - and second - tier cities this year, at least 14 "land kings" in terms of unit price have been sold in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, and Guangzhou. The competition for high - quality land plots remains fierce.

As the first year of the "15th Five - Year Plan", in the first half of 2026, multi - dimensional policies such as top - level design for the real estate industry, monetary regulation, and urban development have been intensively implemented. According to incomplete statistics, a total of 460 policies to stabilize the market have been introduced across the country.

The industry says that driven by policies, the certainty of the industry is continuously accumulating. Especially represented by the policies to stabilize the market in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other places, the new - housing market has maintained good heat since the second quarter, and core cities are expected to stabilize first.

Ding Zuyu's article on the real estate market pointed out that although there has been no reversal in the industry in the first half of the year, 2026 should be the "bottom - building year".

This article is from the WeChat official account "Leju Finance". Author: Li Lan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.