The old project with a 20% discount has attracted a group of bargain hunters.
"The joys and sorrows of humans are not interconnected." In the 2026 real estate market, the weight of this statement is still growing.
Recently, early homeowners of China State Construction Yunjing in Beijing have posted numerous property rights defense complaints across online platforms, accusing the project of drastic price cuts.
Homebuyers who purchased just a little earlier stated that at the time of signing the contract, sales representatives clearly informed them that the maximum discount would only be 12% off, with no possibility of further concessions.
However, by early July 2026, these long-term homeowners discovered that the latest average online signing price for China State Construction Yunjing was only 74,332 yuan per square meter.
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China State Construction Yunjing obtained its pre-sale permit on March 29, 2024, and officially launched for sale on May 18, just over a month later. Unfortunately, it entered the market during the most fiercely competitive period in Fengtai District, where product iterations were happening at the fastest pace, and quickly became mired in market stagnation.
The project contains a total of 838 residential units, of which only 109 were registered online in 2024, translating to a sales rate of just 13% over more than half a year. During this period, prices remained above 80,000 yuan per square meter, with an average online signing price reaching 81,181 yuan per square meter.
As 2025 arrived, property prices at China State Construction Yunjing remained relatively resilient, with the annual average online signing price hitting 80,156 yuan per square meter, barely holding above the 80,000 yuan per square meter threshold—the 80,000 yuan per square meter mark is the dividing line separating luxury properties from ordinary residential units in Beijing's real estate market.
In stark contrast to the firm pricing, transaction volumes remained sluggish. Over the 18-month period from May 2024 to the end of 2025, the project sold only 293 units. Entering 2026, sales plummeted to just 22 units in the first four months, with monthly sales in single digits.
Consequently, starting in May 2026, a scenario that deeply upset existing homeowners unfolded: the average online signing price for China State Construction Yunjing suddenly dropped from over 80,000 yuan per square meter to approximately 74,000 yuan per square meter. This not only fell below the 80,000 yuan per square meter luxury property threshold but also represented a substantial price reduction of roughly 6,000 yuan per square meter. While the discounted units were primarily lower-floor properties, the price cuts were undeniably real.
And that brings us back to the opening scene of this article.
Online signing transaction data for China State Construction Yunjing in 2024, 2025, and as of June 2026
What's even more interesting is the mindset of onlookers and new homebuyers. Some people left comments saying:
Screenshot from online social platforms
Others joked:
Screenshot from online social platforms
Some even commented that China State Construction Yunjing had no merits at 83,000 yuan per square meter, but everything changed when the price dropped to 74,000 yuan.
With price cuts exceeding one million yuan, the project began attracting genuine homebuyers, and sales volumes rebounded. In the month prices were reduced, 32 units were registered online, followed by another 16 units in June. Total sales over these two months were more than double the figures from the preceding four months.
Homeowners who were previously categorized by property location and project characteristics are now ruthlessly divided into two groups by the timeline: those who bought at a loss, and those who secured a bargain. These two groups can even be found living in the same residential building.
Older projects launching special discounted units, attracting bargain-hunting homebuyers is no longer an isolated phenomenon in Beijing's real estate market.
Fengtai District is home to another well-known project: China Merchants Zheyuan, which has become a prime target for bargain hunters following substantial price reductions. The project first launched in October 2023, over 32 months ago. In its early sales phase, transaction prices exceeded 62,000 yuan per square meter, but sales performance consistently fell short of expectations.
A year later, transaction prices at China Merchants Zheyuan dropped to around 57,000 yuan per square meter. However, under pressure from surging housing supply in Fengtai District, prices did not stabilize there. In 2025, prices fell by an additional 3,000 yuan per square meter. In 2026, prices continued their downward trend, with the latest monthly average transaction price reaching 52,520 yuan per square meter, approximately 16% lower than at launch. This new price level has established a regional floor, and transaction volumes have started to recover.
Statistical data
The Chang'an Yuexi project in the Shijingshan Apple Park submarket was launched five years ago. When it first opened for sale in August 2021, the real estate market had just begun its downward trajectory, so initial transaction prices averaged around 78,000 yuan per square meter.
By June 2026, Chang'an Yuexi unexpectedly reappeared in Shijingshan's top 5 residential projects by transaction value, but its average online signing price had fallen to 51,740 yuan per square meter, a direct unit price reduction of 26,000 yuan, representing a decline of 33.7%.
Thanks to its low pricing, Chang'an Yuexi attracted a wave of customers, and the project suddenly became "popular" once again.
Source: Jinglou Real Estate Sales Rankings
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A group of specialized bargain hunters has emerged in the market, who actively target the "clearance sale" prices of older real estate projects.
Their screening logic treats second-hand properties as direct competitors to these remaining units in older projects. These new properties offer superior living experiences compared to existing second-hand homes, but due to market pressure from new-generation residential developments, they have been forced to become "outdated" inventory before they can even be sold, with prices approaching those of relatively new second-hand properties in the surrounding area.
Since the second quarter of this year, such projects have appeared simultaneously across all of Beijing's key transaction zones. According to statistics from the Jinglou Real Estate Sales Rankings, based on new property transaction data for each Beijing district in June 2026, among the top 10 projects in three high-activity districts—Daxing, Changping, and Shijingshan—older projects that have been on the market for over 18 months account for 70%, 60%, and 50% respectively.
In Daxing District's top 10 residential projects by transaction value in June, four launched in 2023, and three launched in 2024. Older projects that have been available for 18 months or more occupy seven of the top ten spots, contributing 62% of the total new property transaction value in Daxing that month.
Xihongmen Oak Bay Wen Yuan: Launched in September 2023, with an average signing price of 64,599 yuan per square meter in its launch year. In June 2026, the average online signing price was 50,689 yuan per square meter, representing a cumulative decline of 21.5%, with prices reduced by nearly 14,000 yuan per square meter;
Jing Xi: Launched in August 2024, with an average first-month transaction price of 46,800 yuan per square meter. In June 2026, the average price was 40,168 yuan per square meter, showing a 14.2% decline in less than two years on the market.
China State Construction One Property's heavily invested project in the Xihongmen area has also become a concentrated target for bargain hunters:
Yi He Mansion: Launched in March 2024, with initial transaction prices exceeding 51,000 yuan per square meter. By June 2026, the average transaction price had fallen to 42,130 yuan per square meter, representing a cumulative decline of 17.6% over approximately two years;
Hua Xiang No.1: Launched in June 2024 and on the market for over two years. The project was once warned for "disrupting the market" due to its ultra-low launch pricing, but actual transaction prices have continued to decline, with the average online signing price in June this year touching the 50,000 yuan per square meter mark;
One Property Xingchuang Royal View Star City and Yuan Qi: Their latest transaction prices have similarly approached 50,000 yuan per square meter.
The same market dynamics are unfolding simultaneously in submarkets with continuously growing housing supply, such as Changping Zhuxinzhuang.
In the first week of July, Wu Tong Xing Chen recorded an average of 2.4 transactions per day, entering Beijing's top 20 weekly ordinary residential property rankings with a total of 17 units sold.
This project first launched in December 2023, over two and a half years ago. After selling half its units at approximately 50,000 yuan per square meter in its first year, sales entered a tepid phase, with only 145 units registered online throughout 2025, averaging just 2.8 transactions per week.
The sudden resurgence of Wu Tong Xing Chen's popularity is due to the project recently releasing a batch of special discounted units, with 75 sqm ground-floor units priced at 36,000 yuan per square meter, and other unit types at 38,000 yuan per square meter.
Driven by these "clearance sale" special offers, transaction volumes at Wu Tong Xing Chen began to recover, but the average transaction price dropped to approximately 43,000 yuan per square meter, 2,445 yuan per square meter lower than the 2025 average, and roughly 15% down from the project's peak price level at launch.
Additionally, 782 units at Wu Tong Xing Chen were delivered in June, meaning unsold units are now ready-to-move-in or near-ready properties, allowing immediate occupancy after purchase. This reduces the waiting period between starting mortgage repayments and moving in, which has also become one of the factors attracting bargain-hunting buyers.
Source: Online materials
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The resurgence of older projects among top-selling properties coincides with the recovery in Beijing's second-hand residential market and the rising proportion of first-time homebuyer transactions in the new property market.
According to official data from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Beijing's online signing volume for second-hand residential properties reached 93,583 units in the first half of 2026, a 5.7% year-on-year increase, marking the highest level for the same period since 2021.
The first half of the year's market upswing exhibited clear characteristics of "first-time homebuyer entry". Statistics from 58.com Anjuke show that in the second-hand property market, transactions for units with a total price below 4 million yuan exceeded 80%, and the proportion of transactions for properties priced below 3 million yuan rose to 55.6%.
Rising transaction volumes have led to a continuous decline in the number of properties listed for sale. In the first half of 2026, Beijing's second-hand property listings fell by 12.23% year-on-year, with new listings decreasing by 10.56% compared to the previous year.
By the end of May, total second-hand property listings in Beijing had dropped to approximately 118,300 units, a reduction of roughly 25,000 units from the historical peak of 143,200 units recorded in September 2025.
The number of high-quality properties suitable for bargain-hunting in the second-hand market has simultaneously decreased, and the psychological price gap between buyers and sellers has gradually widened, leading to a steady recovery in second-hand residential transaction prices. Data monitored by Beijing Lianjia shows that by the end of June, cumulative price growth for the year reached 4.9%, with small consecutive monthly increases recorded since April.
Rising price pressure in the second-hand property market has pushed some bargain-hunting buyers back into the new property market, where they ultimately target the remaining inventory of older projects.
However, these older projects have typically remained stagnant for long periods, with extended histories of poor sales. Their properties show clear generational gaps compared to new developments, leaving price cuts as their only viable strategy to boost sales.
They follow a completely different market trajectory from popular projects that nearly sell out within a year. Recently, in Beijing's new property market, rumors of "price increases" have emerged around a few high-demand projects that have already recouped their