China's new housing starts have fallen 74% since 2019
Floor space of new construction started by property developers in China, billion m², 2019–2025.
Residential floor space started fell from 1,675 million m² in 2019 to 430 million m² in 2025.
The steepest single-year drop came in 2022; residential starts have fallen every year since 2019.
The slide continued in January–September 2026, year on year, to 248 million m² of homes started.
the numbers
| Year | Residential starts (bn m²) | All buildings started (bn m²) |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1.67 | 2.27 |
| 2020 | 1.64 | 2.24 |
| 2021 | 1.46 | 1.99 |
| 2022 | 0.88 | 1.21 |
| 2023 | 0.69 | 0.95 |
| 2024 | 0.54 | 0.74 |
| 2025 | 0.43 | 0.59 |
source notes & method
Each year's level as published in NBS's January release for that year (2019: t20200117_1767745; 2020: t20210118_1812461; 2021: t20220117_1826440; 2022: t20230117_1892126; 2023: t20240117_1946633; 2024: t20250117_1958328; 2025: t20260119_1962324). NBS's year-on-year % changes use a comparable basis, so they can differ slightly from changes computed from published levels. The −74% is derived from levels. Measured in floor area, not number of homes. Jan–Sep 2026 from NBS release of 19 Oct 2026.
Published 3 Nov 2026
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