Staggering changes have taken place in the national second-hand housing market.

Recently we reviewed the market data feedback from Beike covering 15 key cities across the country, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hefei, Changsha, Wuhan, Foshan, Tianjin and Chongqing. These 15 cities can, in my opinion, largely represent the fundamental market situation across the whole country. I found some interesting and thought-provoking details worth your attention, so I sorted them out as quickly as possible to share with all of you.

The first data point: 50%.

This is the national data, not the data of the 15 cities. The 2026 first-half-year property market figures have been released, showing that the transaction volume of second-hand houses across the country has exceeded 50% for the first time in history. Although we predicted this outcome long ago, the actual arrival of this figure means that the market will never return to the old track. It indicates that the stock of second-hand houses is continuously growing, and their cost-performance advantage is becoming increasingly prominent.

The second set of data: 20.5 viewings and 155.1 days.

How many times does a home buyer need to view properties on average before closing a deal? The answer is 20.5 times. This figure has risen beyond my expectation, as I remember that the average number of property viewings was only around 10 times roughly five years ago. This means that the average transaction cycle for second-hand home buyers has doubled. People no longer have anxiety about buying properties, and they fully implement the cost-performance strategy in the second-hand housing market. Many home buyers will even wait until the most suitable property appears even if there are other available options. Meanwhile, the transaction cycle for a single property is 155 days, which is 5 months, nearly half a year. This figure is longer than that of last year. The property market may have the traditional peak seasons of "Golden September, Silver October", but this trend seems no longer applicable to individual property owners.

The third phenomenon: new properties are for improvement demand, while second-hand properties are for rigid demand.

This phenomenon is very straightforward and realistic. Among the 15 cities, nearly 58% of new home buyers are improvement-oriented groups, and this proportion has expanded extremely rapidly, which was only 50% last year. This figure is even more striking in first-tier cities. We have inquired many sales offices in Shanghai, and found that over 70% of customers in almost every project are improvement demand buyers. This will become the main theme of the national new property market in the future, which deserves the attention of all developers. The second-hand property market is still dominated by rigid demand, which accounts for 67% of the total transaction volume. This fact itself also indicates that second-hand properties are attracting customers with their cost-performance, and the continuous drop in total price is also activating the demand from groups that previously had insufficient purchasing power.

The fourth detail: 97 and 79, a very interesting comparison.

We compared the average transaction area of properties for rigid demand, improvement demand and luxury housing between new properties and second-hand properties, and found that for improvement demand buyers and luxury housing buyers, the average transaction area is surprisingly consistent whether in the new or second-hand market: the average area for improvement properties is around 128 square meters, and that for luxury housing is about 230 square meters. Only rigid demand buyers show differentiation between new and second-hand markets: the average transaction area of new properties for rigid demand is 97 square meters, while that of second-hand properties for rigid demand is 79 square meters. This essentially shows that even first-time home buyers have made different choices between new and second-hand properties. Rigid demand buyers in the new property market, even though buying their first home, also expect sufficient space for improvement; while the second-hand property market represents the practical logic of lower total price.

The fifth data point: 2.73%.

Surprisingly, the data feedback of the rental market keeps improving. The rental yield ratio was only 2.2% in 2025, and it has reached 2.73% recently. This reflects several facts: of course, more and more people are willing to rent houses, or have realized the benefits of renting; the emergence of better rental products in the market also objectively enhances the value of the rental market. However, it must be admitted that the rise of the rental yield ratio is, to some extent, the objective result of falling housing prices.

The core competitiveness of second-hand properties lies in cost-performance, which is beyond dispute. Therefore, if you are a real estate agent and plan to stay in this industry, you might as well think seriously about how to create cost-performance value for your clients; if you are a property owner trying to sell your house and cannot provide cost-performance, you might as well figure out how to create quality-performance value. Things will become simple once you get this clear. Looking around, I find that most current property owners do not know how to sell their houses properly, and they still want to wait for a higher price to sell, which is the most pathetic situation.

Customers buying new properties need to be clear: they choose new properties because they are picky and have high standards. Even rigid demand buyers who purchase new properties want to select better products. Therefore, developers need to ask themselves: can you provide houses that exceed users' expectations? Do not keep talking about location all the time, the second-hand properties in high-quality locations are no worse than your new projects. Putting real efforts into the product quality and planning of the community is the only way to attract customers at present.

All in all, you need to understand what is really happening in this era.

There is no mutual integration between the two markets anymore. The new property market and the second-hand property market have been completely divided into two separate tracks, requiring different capabilities for each. There is no such thing as "settling for second best" anymore, every customer will make a clear decision on which track to choose before taking action. So as practitioners in this industry, have you figured out your own positioning?

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Zhen Jialu Jun", author: Zhen Jialu Jun, published with authorization from 36Kr.